2 Kings 16:1-17:41

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. ² Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. ³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he even made his son pass through the fire, in accordance with the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had ^[a]driven out before the sons of Israel. ⁴ And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem for war; and they besieged Ahaz, but ^[b]were not capable of fighting him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath to Aram, and drove the Judeans away from ^[c]Elath; and the ^[d]Arameans came to Elath and have lived 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 ^[e]hand of the king of Aram, and from the ^[f]hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” ⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria. ⁹ So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and led the people of it into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

¹⁰ Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the ^[g]pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship. ¹¹ So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to everything that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, in that way Urijah the priest made it, ^[h]before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. ¹² And when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then the king approached the altar and ^[i]went up to it, ¹³ and ^[j]burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured out his ^[k]drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴ And the bronze altar, which was before the Lord, ^[l]he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and he put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵ Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar ^[m]burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their ^[n]drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me, for making inquiries.” ¹⁶ So Urijah the priest acted in accordance with everything that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the wash basin from them; he also took down the ^[o]Sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁸ And the covered way for the Sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Now as for the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ So Ahaz ^[p]lay down with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

Chapter 17

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years. ² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who preceded him. ³ Shalmaneser the king of Assyria marched against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. ⁴ But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had then brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria arrested him and confined him in prison.

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and led the people of Israel into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷ Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and they had ^[q]feared other gods. ⁸ They also ^[r]followed the ^[s]customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had ^[t]introduced. ⁹ And the sons of Israel ^[u]did things secretly against the Lord their God which were not right. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ And they set up for themselves memorial stones and ^[v]Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ¹¹ and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did that the Lord had taken into exile before them; and they did evil things, provoking the Lord. ¹² They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” ¹³ Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah ^[w]through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes in accordance with all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you ^[x]through My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck ^[y]like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He ^[z]gave them. And they followed ^[aa]idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the Lord had commanded them not to do as they did. ¹⁶ And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast metal images: two calves. And they made an ^[ab]Asherah, and worshiped all the heavenly ^[ac]lights, and served Baal. ¹⁷ Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and they practiced divination and interpreting omens, and gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. ¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His ^[ad]sight; no one was left except the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹ Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God either, but they ^[ae]followed the ^[af]customs ^[ag]which Israel had ^[ah]introduced. ²⁰ So the Lord rejected all the ^[ai]descendants of Israel and afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until He had cast them ^[aj]out of His sight.

²¹ When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and misled them into a great sin. ²² And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed; they did not desist from them ²³ until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, just as He had spoken through all His servants the prophets. So Israel went into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

²⁴ Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, ^[ak]Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. ²⁵ And at the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them that were killing some of them. ²⁶ So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have taken into exile and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; so He has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.”

²⁷ Then the king of Assyria issued commands, saying, “Take one of the priests there whom you led into ^[al]exile, and have ^[am]him go and live there; and have him teach them the custom of the God of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they were to fear the Lord.

²⁹ But every nation was still making gods of its own, and they put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived. ³⁰ The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites were burning their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³² They also feared the Lord and ^[an]appointed from their entire population priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places. ³³ They feared the Lord, yet they were serving their own gods in accordance with the custom of the nations from among whom they had been taken into exile.

³⁴ To this day they act in accordance with the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they ^[ao]follow their statutes, their ordinances, the Law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel. ³⁵ The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. ³⁶ But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷ And the statutes, the ordinances, the Law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall take care to do always; and you shall not fear other gods. ³⁸ The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. ³⁹ But you shall fear the Lord your God; and He will save you from the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰ However, they did not listen, but they kept acting in accordance with their earlier custom. ⁴¹ So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their ^[ap]idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, just as their fathers did, they do to this day.