2 Chronicles 28

¹ Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD, as David his father had done.

² He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even made cast images for the Baals.

³ He burned incense in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and burned his sons in the fire, following the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

⁴ He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ So the LORD his God handed him over to the king of Aram. They defeated him, took many captives from him, and brought them to Damascus. Ahaz was also handed over to the king of Israel, who inflicted a great defeat on him.

⁶ Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 people in Judah in a single day, all of them brave warriors, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

⁷ Zichri, a warrior from Ephraim, killed Maaseiah, the king’s son, Azrikam, the chief steward of the palace, and Elkanah, the king’s second-in-command.

⁸ The Israelites took 200,000 of their brothers captive—women, sons, and daughters—and also seized a great deal of plunder from them, which they brought to Samaria.

⁹ A prophet of the LORD named Oded was there. He went out to meet the army as it arrived in Samaria and said to them, “Look, it was in the fury of the LORD, the God of your ancestors, against Judah that he handed them over to you. But you killed them with a rage that reached up to heaven.

¹⁰ And now you intend to make the people of Judah and Jerusalem your male and female slaves. But don’t you yourselves have guilt before the LORD your God?

¹¹ Now listen to me: return the captives you took from your brothers, because the fierce anger of the LORD is upon you.”

¹² Then some men among the leaders of Ephraim—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—stood against those returning from the war.

¹³ They said to them, “Do not bring the captives here, or you will add to our sins and our guilt before the LORD. Our guilt is already great, and fierce anger is upon Israel.”

¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the leaders and the whole assembly.

¹⁵ The men who had been designated by name rose, took charge of the captives, and used the plunder to clothe all who were naked. They clothed them, gave them sandals, food, and drink, anointed them with oil, and put all those who were too weak to walk on donkeys. They brought them to Jericho, the city of palms, to their brothers, and then returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.

¹⁷ The Edomites came again, defeated Judah, and took captives.

¹⁸ The Philistines raided the towns in the lowlands and the Negev of Judah. They captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its villages, Timnah and its villages, and Gimzo and its villages, and settled there.

¹⁹ For the LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, who had let Judah become lawless and had been utterly unfaithful to the LORD.

²⁰ Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and caused him distress instead of strengthening him.

²¹ Ahaz took some of the things from the house of the LORD, the king’s house, and the leaders, and gave them to the king of Assyria. But this did not help him.

²² Even while he was in distress, he became still more unfaithful to the LORD—this same King Ahaz.

²³ He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him, and said, “Since the gods of the kings of Aram help them, I will sacrifice to those gods so they may help me.” But they brought about his ruin and the ruin of all Israel.

²⁴ Ahaz gathered the furnishings from the house of God and smashed them. He shut the doors of the house of the LORD and made altars for himself on every corner of Jerusalem.

²⁵ In every town of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and he provoked the anger of the LORD, the God of his ancestors.

²⁶ The rest of his deeds and all his ways, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷ Ahaz rested with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, because they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

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