Read the Bible

¹ AHAZ was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father;² But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made altars for the idols.³ Moreover he burned incense in great valleys, and passed his son through the fire, according to the custom of the nations whom the LORD had destroyed from before the children of Israel.⁴ And he sacrificed also and burned incense upon the altars and on high places and under every beautiful tree.⁵ Therefore the LORD God delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram; and he smote him with a great slaughter, and carried away a great multitude of people captive and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

⁶ For Pekah the son of Romaliah slew from the army of the king of Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.⁷ And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim slew Maasiah the kings son and Azrikai the governor of the palace and Elkanah who was next to the king.⁸ And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand and their sons and their daughters, and also took away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.⁹ But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Ado; and he went out before the army that came to Samaria, and said to them, Behold, because the LORD God of our fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hands, and you have slain them and had no pity on them.¹⁰ And now you purpose to make them menservants and maidservants to yourself, and even now you know that you have committed this sin in the presence of the LORD your God.¹¹ Now hear me, therefore, and send back those whom you have taken captive from your brethren, lest the fierce wrath of the LORD come upon you.¹² Then certain of the chiefs of the Ephraimites, Azariah the son of Johanan and Berechiah the son of Mekariah, stood up against them who came from the war,¹³ And said to them, You shall not bring these captives here, that we may not sin again against the LORD our God; you intend to add more to our trespass and to our sins; for our sins are exceedingly great.¹⁴ So they sent back all the captives to Jerusalem. But again they dealt deceitfully with the LORD.¹⁵ And the men who were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren; then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz asked the king of Assyria to help him,¹⁷ For until this time the Edomites came and smote Judah and carried away captives.¹⁸ And the Philistines also had come and besieged the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had captured the town of Beth-shemesh and the town of Ajalon and the town of Azoroth and Shob with its villages and Timnah with its villages and Geram with its villages.¹⁹ For the LORD brought Judah low because of the sins of Ahaz king of Judah; for he increased iniquity in Judah and transgressed grievously against the LORD.²⁰ And Tiglath-pilezer king of Assyria came against him, and encamped against him and distressed him greatly.²¹ And King Ahaz took away the vessels that were in the house of the LORD and the vessels that were in the houses of former kings and in the houses of rich men, and gave them to the king of Assyria, that he might not harm him in the time of his distress.²² But they transgressed still more against the LORD: this same King Ahaz.²³ For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, saying, You are my gods and my lords: to you will I offer worship and to you will I make sacrifice; thus he was a stumbling block to Judah, he sinned and caused all the people of Judah to sin.²⁴ And Ahaz gathered together all the vessels of the house of the LORD, and cut in pieces the vessels that were in the house of the LORD, and shut up the inner and the outer doors of the house of the LORD, and he made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.²⁵ And in every village and hamlet of Judah he made an altar to serve other gods.²⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.²⁷ And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Jerusalem; for they did not bring him into the sepulchres of the kings of Judah; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.