2 Kings 16:1-20
16 In the seventeenth year of Peʹkah the son of Rem·a·liʹah, Aʹhaz+ the son of Joʹtham the king of Judah became king.
2 Twenty years old was Aʹhaz when he began to reign, and for sixteen years he reigned in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah his God like David his forefather.+
3 And he went walking in the way of the kings of Israel,+ and even his own son he made pass through the fire,+ according to the detestable+ things of the nations whom Jehovah drove out because of the sons of Israel.
4 And he kept sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places+ and upon the hills+ and under every luxuriant tree.+
5 It was then that Reʹzin+ the king of Syria and Peʹkah+ the son of Rem·a·liʹah the king of Israel proceeded to come up against Jerusalem in war and laid siege against Aʹhaz, but they were not able to fight.+
6 At that time Reʹzin the king of Syria restored Eʹlath+ to Eʹdom,* after which he cleared out the Jews from Eʹlath; and the Eʹdom·ites, for their part, entered Eʹlath and kept dwelling there down to this day.
7 So Aʹhaz sent messengers to Tigʹlath-pil·eʹser+ the king of As·syrʹi·a, saying: “I am your servant+ and your son. Come up and save+ me out of the palm of the king of Syria and out of the palm of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”
8 Accordingly Aʹhaz took the silver and the gold that was to be found at the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king’s house+ and sent the king of As·syrʹi·a a bribe.+
9 At that the king of As·syrʹi·a listened to him and the king of As·syrʹi·a went up to Damascus+ and captured it+ and led its [people] into exile at Kir,+ and Reʹzin+ he put to death.
10 Then King Aʹhaz+ went to meet Tigʹlath-pil·eʹser+ the king of As·syrʹi·a at Damascus, and he got to see the altar+ that was in Damascus. So King Aʹhaz sent U·riʹjah the priest the design* of the altar and its pattern as respects all its workmanship.+
11 And U·riʹjah+ the priest proceeded to build the altar.+ According to all that King Aʹhaz had sent from Damascus was the way that U·riʹjah the priest made it, pending the time that King Aʹhaz came from Damascus.
12 When the king came from Damascus, the king got to see the altar; and the king began to go near to the altar+ and make offerings upon it.+
13 And he continued to make his burnt offering+ and his grain offering+ smoke+ and to pour out his drink offering+ and to sprinkle the blood of the communion sacrifices that were his upon the altar.
14 And the copper altar+ that was before Jehovah he now brought near from in front of the house, from between his altar and the house+ of Jehovah, and put it at the north side of his altar.
15 And King Aʹhaz went on to command him, even U·riʹjah+ the priest, saying: “Upon the great altar make the burnt offering of the morning smoke,+ also the grain offering of the evening+ and the burnt offering of the king+ and his grain offering and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and all the blood of burnt offering and all the blood of a sacrifice you should sprinkle upon it. As for the copper altar, it will become something for me to take under consideration.”
16 And U·riʹjah+ the priest went doing according to all that King Aʹhaz had commanded.+
17 Furthermore, King Aʹhaz cut+ the sidewalls+ of the carriages+ in pieces and removed from off them the basins;+ and the sea+ he took down off the copper bulls+ that were underneath it and then put it upon a stone pavement.
18 And the covered structure for the sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s outer entryway he shifted from the house of Jehovah because of the king of As·syrʹi·a.
19 As for the rest of the affairs of Aʹhaz, what he did, are they not written in the book+ of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah?
20 Finally Aʹhaz lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David;+ and Hez·e·kiʹah*+ his son began to reign in place of him.
Footnotes
^ “Edom” should evidently be read here instead of “Syria” (ʼAramʹ).
^ Or, “likeness.”
^ Meaning “Jehovah Strengthens.” Heb., Chiz·qi·yaʹhu.
