2 Kings 16

Revised Geneva Translation

16 The seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.

² Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do uprightly in the sight of the LORD his God (like David his father),

³ but walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son go through the fire, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

⁴ Also, he offered and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to fight. And they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

⁶ At the same time, Rezin, king of Aram, restored Elath to Aram and drove the Jews from Elath. So, the Aramites came to Elath and dwell there to this day.

⁷ Then Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and deliver me out of the hand of the king of Aram and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.”

⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the House of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.

⁹ And the king of Assyria listened to him. And the king of Assyria went up against Damascus. And when he had taken it, he carried the people away to Kir and killed Rezin.

¹⁰ And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. And when King Ahaz saw the altar that was at Damascus, he sent to Urijah the Priest the pattern of the altar, and the fashion of it, and all its workmanship.

¹¹ And Urijah the Priest made an altar, in all points like that which King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So did Urijah the Priest while King Ahaz came from Damascus.

¹² So when the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar. And the king drew near to the altar and offered on it.

¹³ And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings beside the altar,

¹⁴ and set it by the bronze altar, which was before the LORD, and brought it in further from the front of the House, between the altar and the House of the LORD, and set it on the northern side of the altar.

¹⁵ And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the Priest, and said, “In the morning, set the burnt offering on fire upon the great altar, and in the evening the meat offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his meat offering with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings. And pour all the blood of the burnt offering by them, and all the blood of the sacrifice. And the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire.”

¹⁶ And Urijah the Priest did according to all that King Ahaz had commanded.

¹⁷ And King Ahaz broke the borders of the bases, and took the caldrons from off them, and took down the sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stones.

¹⁸ And the veil for the Sabbath (that they had made in the House) and he turned the king’s outside entrance into the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Concerning the rest of the acts of Ahaz, which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁰ And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. And Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his place.