2 Chronicles 28

28 ¹Ahaz became king at twenty; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do right in our Father's eyes, as his ancestor David had. ²Instead, he walked in the ways of Israel's kings and cast metal idols for the Baals. ³He burned incense in Ben-Hinnom Valley and burned his sons in fire, copying detestable practices of the nations our Father drove out before Israel. ⁴He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, the hills, and under every leafy tree. ^a a v4 High places were hilltop or open-air shrines used for pagan worship throughout Canaan.

⁵So our Father gave him to Aram's king, who struck him, took many captives to Damascus; he was also given to Israel's king, who struck him a heavy blow. ⁶Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 brave men of Judah in one day, because they abandoned our Father, the God of their ancestors. ⁷Zichri, an Ephraim warrior, killed Maaseiah the king's son, Azrikam the palace commander, and Elkanah, the king's second. ⁸Israel captured 200,000 relatives—women, sons, daughters—and much plunder, carrying it off to Samaria. ⁹Oded, a prophet of our Father, was there. He met the army returning to Samaria: "See, our Father, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah, so he handed them to you. But you killed them with rage reaching heaven. ¹⁰Now you intend to enslave Judah and Jerusalem's people, male and female. Aren't you yourselves guilty of sins against your Father? ¹¹Now listen: send back the relatives you captured, for our Father's fierce anger is on you." ¹²Some Ephraimite chiefs—Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, Amasa son of Hadlai—opposed those coming from battle. ¹³"Don't bring the captives here," they said. "You plan to add to our sins and guilt against our Father. Our guilt is already great, and fierce anger hangs over Israel."

¹⁴So the soldiers handed the captives and plunder in front of the officials, before the whole assembly. ¹⁵The named men took the captives and clothed all the naked from the plunder. They gave them clothes and sandals, food and drink, and anointed them with oil. They set the feeble on donkeys, brought them to their fellow Israelites at Jericho, city of palms, then returned to Samaria.

¹⁶At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. ¹⁷The Edomites had invaded Judah once again and carried off captives, ¹⁸while Philistines raided Judah's lowland and Negev towns, seizing Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their villages, and settled there. ¹⁹Our Father humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, who spread wrongdoing in Judah and betrayed our Father completely. ^b b v19 Ahaz reigned over Judah; calling him "king of Israel" marks how completely he had taken up the ways of the northern kingdom's faithless kings. ²⁰Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came to Ahaz, but Tiglath-pileser brought him trouble instead of help. ²¹Ahaz stripped our Father's house, the royal palace, and the officials of their treasures, giving them to Assyria's king—yet it brought him no help.

²²In his time of distress, this same King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to our Father. ²³He sacrificed to Damascus's gods, his defeaters, thinking, "Aram's kings' gods helped them; I'll sacrifice to them so they'll help me." But they ruined him and all Israel. ²⁴Ahaz gathered the articles of our Father's house and cut them to pieces, shut the doors of our Father's house, and set up altars for himself at every corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵In every Judah town he built high places to burn offerings to other gods, angering our Father, the God of his ancestors.

²⁶The rest of his deeds and all his ways, first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷Ahaz rested with his ancestors, buried in Jerusalem, but not in Israel's kings' tombs. His son Hezekiah reigned instead.