Read the Bible

¹ IN the eighteenth year of Pekah the son of Romaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.² Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and he did not do that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, and thus was unlike David his father.³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and also made his son to pass through the fire, according to the custom of the Gentiles whom the LORD had destroyed from before the children of Israel.⁴ And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Romaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war against it; but they could not fight against it.⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, and drove Judah from Elath; and the Arameans came to Elath and dwell there to this day.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 hands of the king of Aram and from the hands of the king of Israel, who are risen up against me.⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the kings house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.⁹ And the king of Assyria listened to him; so the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it and carried its people captive to Kir, and he slew Rezin.

¹⁰ And when King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw an altar that was in Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.¹¹ So Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; and Urijah the priest made it before King Ahaz came from Damascus.¹² And when the king was come from Damascus, King Ahaz saw the altar; and the king drew near to the altar and went up to it,¹³ And burned his burnt offerings and his meal offerings, and poured his drink offerings and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar.¹⁴ And the altar of brass, which was before the LORD, he removed from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.¹⁵ And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the kings burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offerings of all the people of the land and their meal offerings and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices; and the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire of the LORD.¹⁶ Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded him.

¹⁷ And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases and removed the lavers from off them; and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stones.¹⁸ And the shelter for the sabbath which they had built in the house of the LORD and in the entrance of the outer gate, he turned round the house of the LORD because of the fear of the king of Assyria.¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.²⁰ And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.