Dual Panel1AHAZ was twenty years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD like his forefather David,
2but followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, and cast metal images for the baalim.
3He also burnt sacrifices in the valley of Ben-hinnom; he even burnt his sons in the fire according to the abominable practice of the nations whom the LORD had dispossessed in favour of the Israelites.
4He sacrificed and burned offerings at the shrines and on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
5The LORD his God let Ahaz suffer at the hands of the king of Aram: the Aramaeans defeated him, took many captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also made to suffer at the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted a severe defeat on him.
6This was Pekah son of Remaliah, who killed in one day a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, seasoned troops, for they had forsaken the LORD the God of their forefathers.
7Zichri, an Ephraimite hero, killed Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the comptroller of the household and Elkanah the king's chief minister.
8The Israelites took captive from their kinsmen two hundred thousand women and children; they also removed a large amount of booty and brought it to Samaria.
9A prophet of the LORD was there, Oded by name; he went out to meet the army as it returned to Samaria and said to them, “It is because the LORD the God of your forefathers is angry with Judah that he has given them into your power. But you have massacred them in a rage that has towered up to heaven.
10You now propose to force the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, into slavery. Are you not also guilty men before the LORD your God?
11Now listen to me. Send back those you have taken captive from your kinsmen, for the anger of the LORD is roused against you.”
12Next, some Ephraimite chiefs, Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Hezekiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, met those who were returning from the war
13and said to them, “You must not bring these captives into our country; what you are proposing would make us guilty before the LORD and add to our sins and transgressions. We are guilty enough already, and there is fierce anger against Israel.”
14So the armed men left the captives and the spoil with the officers and the assembled people.
15The captives were put in the charge of men nominated for this duty, who found clothes from the spoil for all who were naked; they clothed and shod them, gave them food and drink, and anointed them. All who were tottering on their last legs they mounted on donkeys, and took them to their kinsmen in Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they themselves returned to Samaria.
16At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help.
17The Edomites had invaded again and defeated Judah and carried away prisoners,
18while the Philistines had raided towns of the Shephelah and of the Negeb of Judah; they had captured and occupied Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their villages.
19The LORD had reduced Judah to submission because of Ahaz king of Judah; for his actions in Judah had been unbridled and he had been grossly unfaithful to the LORD.
20Then King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came to him and, far from assisting him, pressed him hard.
21Ahaz stripped the house of the LORD, the king's palace, and the houses of his officers, and gave the plunder to the king of Assyria; but all to no purpose.
22This king, Ahaz, when hard pressed, became more and more unfaithful to the LORD;
23he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, for he said, “The gods of the kings of Aram helped them; I shall sacrifice to them so that they may help me.” But in fact they caused his downfall and that of all Israel.
24Then Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and broke them up, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD; he made himself altars at every corner in Jerusalem,
25and at every town of Judah he made shrines to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the anger of the LORD the God of his forefathers.
26The other acts and all the events of his reign, from first to last, are recorded in the annals of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27Ahaz rested with his forefathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not given burial with the kings of Judah. His son Hezekiah succeeded him.