< 2 Kings 16 >
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah, began to reign.
When Pekah had been ruling Israel for almost 17 years, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, became the king of Judah.
2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of Yahweh his God, as David his ancestor had done.
He was 20 years old when he became the king [of Judah]. He ruled from Jerusalem for 16 years. He did not do things that pleased Yahweh his God, good things like his ancestor King David had done.
3 Instead, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed, he made his son pass through the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations, which Yahweh had driven out before the people of Israel.
Instead, he was as sinful as the kings of Israel had been. He even sacrificed his son as an offering to idols. That was worse than the disgusting things that the people who previously lived there had done, people whom Yahweh had expelled as the Israelis were advancing through the land.
4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops, and under every green tree.
Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense [to honor Yahweh] on the tops of many hills and under many [HYP] big trees, [instead of in Jerusalem as Yahweh had commanded].
5 Then Rezin, king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to attack. They besieged Ahaz, but they could not conquer him.
While he was the king of Judah, King Rezin of Assyria and King Pekah of Israel [came with their armies] and attacked Jerusalem. They surrounded the city, but they could not conquer it.
6 At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the men of Judah out of Elath. Then the Arameans came to Elath where they have lived to this day.
At that time the [army of the] king of Edom expelled the people of Judah who were living in Elath [city]. Some of the people of Edom started to live there, and they are still living there.
7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have attacked me.”
King Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria, to tell this message to him: “I promise that I will completely do what you tell me to do, [as though] I [was] your son. Please come and rescue us from the armies of Syria and Israel who are attacking my country.”
8 So Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and among the treasures of the king's palace and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
Ahaz took the silver and gold that was in the palace and in the temple and sent it to Assyria to be a present/gift for the king of Assyria.
9 Then the king of Assyria listened to him, and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, conquered it and carried off its people as prisoners to Kir. He also killed Rezin the king of Aram.
So Tiglath-Pileser did what Ahaz requested. His army marched to Damascus and captured it, and they took the people of Damascus as prisoners to live in the capital city of Assyria, and executed [King] Rezin.
10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. At Damascus he saw an altar. He sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar and its pattern and the design for all the workmanship needed.
When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-Pileser, he saw the altar that was there. So he sent to Uriah, the Supreme Priest [in Jerusalem], a drawing of the altar and a model that was exactly like the altar in Damascus.
11 So Uriah the priest built an altar to be just like the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. He finished it before King Ahaz arrived back from Damascus.
So Uriah built an altar [in Jerusalem], following the drawing that King Ahaz had sent. Uriah finished the altar before Ahaz returned [to Jerusalem] from Damascus.
12 When the king came from Damascus he saw the altar; the king approached the altar and made offerings on it.
When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar. He went to it
13 He made his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
and burned animal sacrifices and a grain offering on it. He also poured a wine offering on it and threw on it the blood of the offerings to maintain fellowship with God.
14 The bronze altar that was before Yahweh—he brought it from the front of the temple, from between his altar and the temple of Yahweh and put it on the north side of his altar.
The old bronze altar which had been dedicated long ago to Yahweh was between the new altar and the temple, so Ahaz moved it to the north side of his new altar, [which was bigger than the old altar].
15 Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the large altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar will be for me to consult for guidance.”
Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah: “Each morning put on this new altar the sacrifices that will be completely burned, and in the evening put on it the grain offering, along with my offering and the offerings that the people bring, ones that will be completely burned, and my grain offering and the people’s grain and wine offerings. Pour against the sides of the altar the blood of all the animals that are sacrificed. But the old bronze altar will be only for me to use to find out what Yahweh wants me to do.”
16 Uriah the priest did just what King Ahaz commanded.
So Uriah did what the king commanded him to do.
17 Then King Ahaz removed the panels and the basins from the portable stands; he also took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.
King Ahaz told his workers to take off the frames of the carts [that were outside the temple] and to take down the basins that were on them. They also took down the bronze tank from the backs of the bronze [statues of the] oxen and put it on a stone foundation.
18 He removed the covered walkway for the Sabbath that they had built at the temple, along with the king's entry outside the temple of Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria.
Then to please the king of Assyria, Ahaz had them remove from the temple the roof under which the people walked into the temple on the Sabbath Day, and closed up the private entrance into the temple for the kings of Judah.
19 As for the other matters concerning Ahaz and what he did, are they not written in the book of the events of the kings of Judah?
[If you want to know about] the other things that Ahaz did, they are written [RHQ] in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah’.
20 Ahaz slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. Hezekiah his son became king in his place.
Ahaz died [EUP], and he was buried in [the part of Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’, where his ancestors had been buried. Then his son Hezekiah became the king.