2 Kings 16

2 Kings 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, son of Remaliah, Ahaz, son of Jotham, became king of Judah.

2 Kings 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of Yahveh, his God, like his ancestor David

2 Kings 16:3 but walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even sacrificed his son in the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations Yahveh had dispossessed before the Israelites.

2 Kings 16:4 He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

2 Kings 16:5 Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah, son of Remaliah, came to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.

2 Kings 16:6 At that time, Aram’s King Rezin recovered Elath for Aram and expelled the Judahites from Elath. Then, the Arameans came to Elath, and they still live there today.

2 Kings 16:7 So Ahaz sent agents to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your slave and your son. March up and save me from the grasp of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are rising against me.”

2 Kings 16:8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in Yahveh’s temple and the treasuries of the king’s palace and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe.

2 Kings 16:9 So the king of Assyria listened to him and marched up to Damascus and captured it. He deported its people to Kir but put Rezin to death.

2 Kings 16:10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria. When he saw the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent the priest Uriah a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

2 Kings 16:11 Uriah built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz sent from Damascus. Therefore, by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus, the priest Uriah had completed it.

2 Kings 16:12 When the king returned from Damascus, he saw the altar. Then he approached it and ascended it.

2 Kings 16:13 He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and splattered the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.

2 Kings 16:14 He took the bronze altar that was before Yahveh in front of the temple between his altar and Yahveh’s temple and put it on the north side of his altar.

2 Kings 16:15 Then King Ahaz commanded the priest, Uriah, “Offer on the great altar the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering. Also, offer the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. Splatter on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of sacrifice. The bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance.”

2 Kings 16:16 The priest Uriah did everything King Ahaz commanded.

2 Kings 16:17 Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water carts and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took the basin from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.

2 Kings 16:18 To satisfy the king of Assyria, he removed from Yahveh’s temple the Sabbath canopy they had built in the palace, and he closed the outer entrance for the king.

2 Kings 16:19 The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

2 Kings 16:20 Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Hezekiah became king in his place.

links:

changing things – Devotions
renovations

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library