⁵⁷ But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom^[a] and all her neighbors and by Philistia.

⁵ Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel came up to attack Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. ⁶ At that time the king of Edom^[a] recovered the town of Elath for Edom.^[b] He drove out the people of Judah and sent Edomites^[c] to live there, as they do to this day.

⁷ King Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria with this message: “I am your servant and your vassal.^[d] Come up and rescue me from the attacking armies of Aram and Israel.”

³⁶ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have poured out your lust and exposed yourself in prostitution to all your lovers, and because you have worshiped detestable idols,^[a] and because you have slaughtered your children as sacrifices to your gods, ³⁷ this is what I am going to do. I will gather together all your allies—the lovers with whom you have sinned, both those you loved and those you hated—and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you.

A Message for Ahaz

7 When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria^[a] and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out their plan.

¹⁸ And the Philistines had raided towns located in the foothills of Judah^[a] and in the Negev of Judah. They had already captured and occupied Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. ¹⁹ The Lord was humbling Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah,^[b] for he had encouraged his people to sin and had been utterly unfaithful to the Lord.

²⁰ So when King Tiglath-pileser^[c] of Assyria arrived, he attacked Ahaz instead of helping him. ²¹ Ahaz took valuable items from the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, and from the homes of his officials and gave them to the king of Assyria as tribute. But this did not help him.

²² Even during this time of trouble, King Ahaz continued to reject the Lord. ²³ He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, for he said, “Since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will help me, too, if I sacrifice to them.” But instead, they led to his ruin and the ruin of all Judah.

⁵ Because of all this, the Lord his God allowed the king of Aram to defeat Ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies of the king of Israel also defeated Ahaz and inflicted many casualties on his army. ⁶ In a single day Pekah son of Remaliah, Israel’s king, killed 120,000 of Judah’s troops, all of them experienced warriors, because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

⁵ So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.

Israel’s Love for Wickedness

¹⁸ “In the same way, I became disgusted with Oholibah and rejected her, just as I had rejected her sister, because she flaunted herself before them and gave herself to satisfy their lusts. ¹⁹ Yet she turned to even greater prostitution, remembering her youth when she was a prostitute in Egypt.