1Ahaz, son of Jotham, became king of Judah in the seventeenth year of the reign of Pekah, son of Remaliah.

2Ahaz was twenty when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. But unlike David his forefather, he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God.

3He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, and he even sacrificed his son in the fire, participating in the disgusting practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

4He sacrificed and presented burnt offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came and attacked Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but couldn't defeat him.

6This was when Rezin, king of Aram, recovered Elath for Edom. ³³He expelled the people of Judah, and sent Edomites to Elath, where they still live to this day.

7Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, “I'm your servant, and your son. Please come and rescue me from the kings of Aram and Israel who are attacking me.”

8Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Lord's Temple and from the treasuries of the king's palace, and he sent it to the king of Assyria as a gift.

9The king of Assyria responded positively to him. He went and attacked Damascus, and captured it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and executed Rezin.

10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. During his visit he saw an altar ³⁴in Damascus, and he sent Uriah the priest a drawing of the altar, along with instructions how to build it.

11So Uriah the priest built an altar following all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, completing it before King Ahaz returned.

12When the king came back from Damascus he saw the altar. He went over to it and made offerings on it.

13He presented his burnt offering and his grain offering, he poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his friendship offerings on it.

14He also moved the bronze altar that stood before the Lord from the front of the Temple, between the new altar and the Lord's Temple, and he placed it to the north of the new altar.

15Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest: “Use this new important altar to offer the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people, and their grain offerings and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. The old bronze altar I'll use for divination.”

16Uriah the priest followed King Ahaz's orders.

17King Ahaz also removed the frames of the movable carts, and also took out the bronze basin from each of them. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls it rested on and placed it on a stone pedestal.

18He took down the Sabbath canopy they had built in the Temple, as well as the king's outer entrance to the Lord's Temple. He did this to please the king of Assyria.

19The rest of what happened in Ahaz's reign and all he did are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

20Ahaz died and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.