1Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years. He didn’t do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He didn’t do what King David had done.2He followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He also made statues of gods that were named Baal.3He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He sacrificed his children in the fire to other gods. He followed the practices of the nations. The LORD hates these practices. The LORD had driven out those nations to make room for the people of Israel.4Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places. He also did it on the tops of hills and under every green tree.5So the LORD his God handed him over to the king of Aram. The men of Aram won the battle over him. They took many of his people as prisoners. They brought them to Damascus. God also handed Ahaz over to Pekah. Pekah was king of Israel. His army wounded or killed many of the troops of Ahaz.6In one day Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed 120,000 soldiers in Judah. That’s because Judah had deserted the LORD, the God of their people.7Zikri was a fighting man from Ephraim. He killed Maaseiah, Azrikam and Elkanah. Maaseiah was the king’s son. Azrikam was the officer who was in charge of the palace. And Elkanah was next in command after the king.8The men of Israel captured 200,000 wives, sons and daughters from their relatives in Judah. They also took a large amount of goods. They carried all of it back to Samaria.9But a prophet of the LORD was there. His name was Oded. When the army returned to Samaria, he went out to meet them. He said to them, ‘The LORD is the God of your people. He was very angry with Judah. So he handed them over to you. But you have killed them. Your anger reached all the way to heaven.10Now you are planning to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren’t you also guilty of sins against the LORD your God?11Listen to me! You have taken your relatives from Judah as prisoners. The LORD is very angry with you. So send your relatives back.’12Then some of the leaders in Ephraim stood up to those who were returning from the war. The leaders were Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa. Azariah was the son of Jehohanan. Berekiah was the son of Meshillemoth. Jehizkiah was the son of Shallum. And Amasa was the son of Hadlai.13‘Don’t bring those prisoners here,’ they said. ‘If you do, we’ll be guilty in the sight of the LORD. Do you really want to add to our sin and guilt? We’re already very guilty. The LORD is very angry with Israel.’14So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken. They did it in front of the officials and the whole community.15Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa received the prisoners. From the goods that had been taken, they gave clothes to everyone who was naked. They gave them clothes, sandals, food, drink and healing lotion. They put all the weak people on donkeys. They took them back to their relatives at Jericho. Then they returned to Samaria. Jericho was also known as the City of Palm Trees.16At that time King Ahaz sent men to the king of Assyria to get help.17The men of Edom had come and attacked Judah again. They had carried away prisoners.18At the same time the Philistines had attacked towns in the western hills and in the Negev Desert of Judah. They had captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth. They had also captured Soko, Timnah and Gimzo and the villages around them. They had settled down in all of them.19The LORD had made Judah less powerful because of Ahaz, their king. Ahaz had stirred up the people of Judah to do evil things. He hadn’t been faithful to the LORD at all.20Tiglath-Pileser came to Ahaz. But he gave Ahaz trouble instead of help. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria.21Ahaz took some things from the LORD’s temple. He also took some from the royal palace and from the officials. He gave all of them to the king of Assyria. But that didn’t help Ahaz.22When King Ahaz was in trouble, he became even more unfaithful to the LORD.23Ahaz offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. They had won the battle over him. Ahaz thought, ‘The gods of the kings of Aram have helped them. So I’ll sacrifice to those gods. Then they’ll help me.’ But those gods only caused his ruin. In fact, those gods caused the ruin of the whole nation of Israel.24Ahaz gathered together everything that belonged to God’s temple. He cut all of it in pieces. Ahaz shut the doors of the LORD’s temple. He set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.25In every town in Judah he built high places. Sacrifices were burned there to other gods. That made the LORD, the God of his people, very angry.26The other events of the rule of Ahaz and all his evil practices from beginning to end are written down. They are written in the records of the kings of Judah and Israel.27Ahaz joined the members of his family who had already died. He was buried in the city of Jerusalem. But he wasn’t placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became the next king after him.
2 Chronicles 28
English Standard Version
Ahaz Reigns in Judah
1Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, (2Ki 16:2)2but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, (Ex 34:17; Jud 2:11)3and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering,[1] according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. (Le 18:21; De 18:9; Jos 15:8; 2Ch 28:25; 2Ch 33:2; 2Ch 33:6)4And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. (2Ch 28:3)
Judah Defeated
5Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. (2Ki 16:5; Isa 7:1)6For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2Ki 15:27; 2Ki 16:5)7And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son and Azrikam the commander of the palace and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.8The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. (2Ch 11:4)9But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. (Ezr 9:6; Isa 47:6; Eze 25:12; Eze 25:15; Eze 26:2; Re 18:5)10And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God?11Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.” (2Ch 28:8)12Certain chiefs also of the men of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the war13and said to them, “You shall not bring the captives in here, for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.”14So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly.15And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them. They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria. (Nu 1:17; De 34:3; Jud 1:16; 2Ki 6:22; 2Ch 28:12; 2Ch 31:19; Pr 25:21; Ro 12:20)16At that time King Ahaz sent to the king[2] of Assyria for help. (2Ki 16:7)17For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives.18And the Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. (Nu 21:25; Jos 15:33; Eze 16:27; Eze 16:57)19For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully[3] and had been very unfaithful to the Lord. (2Ch 21:2)20So Tiglath-pileser[4] king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. (2Ki 15:29; 2Ki 16:7)21For Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him. (2Ki 16:8)
Ahaz’s Idolatry
22In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz.23For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. (2Ch 25:14; Jer 44:17)24And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. (2Ki 16:17; 2Ch 30:14)25In every city of Judah he made high places to make offerings to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. (2Ch 28:3)26Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. (2Ki 16:19)27And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. (2Ch 21:20; 2Ch 24:25)