Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of ^(A)Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, ^(B)Rezin the king of Syria and ^(C)Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

³ And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and ^(A)Shear-jashub^[a] your son, at the end of ^(B)the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰ Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz,

¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

²⁸ In the year that ^(A)King Ahaz died came this ^(B)oracle:

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. ² Ahaz was ^(A)twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, ³ but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. ^(B)He even burned his son as an offering,^{[a] (C)}according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ^4 (D)And he sacrificed and made offerings ^(E)on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

^5 (F)Then Rezin king of Syria and ^(G)Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz ^(H)but could not conquer him. ⁶ At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered ^(I)Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from ^(J)Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. ^7 (K)So Ahaz sent messengers to ^(L)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸ Ahaz also ^(M)took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ^9 (N)And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus ^(O)and took it, carrying its people captive to ^(P)Kir, and he killed Rezin.

¹⁰ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ^(Q)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to ^(R)Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. ¹¹ And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. ¹² And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. ^(S)Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it ¹³ and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴ And ^(T)the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed ^(U)from the front of the house, from the place between ^(V)his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of ^(W)his altar. ¹⁵ And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn ^(X)the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but ^(Y)the bronze altar shall be for me to enquire by.” ¹⁶ Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down ^(Z)the sea^[b] from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. ¹⁸ And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go round the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written ^(AA)in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ And Ahaz slept with his fathers and ^(AB)was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

28 ^(A)Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, ² but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made ^(B)metal images for ^(C)the Baals, ³ and ^(D)he made offerings in the ^(E)Valley of the Son of Hinnom and ^(F)burned his sons as an offering,^[a] according to ^(G)the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ⁴ And he sacrificed and ^(H)made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Judah Defeated

^5 (I)Therefore 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. ⁶ For ^(J)Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valour, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. ⁷ And 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.

⁸ The men of Israel took captive 200,000 ^(K)of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. ⁹ But 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, ^(L)was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage ^(M)that has reached up to heaven. ¹⁰ And 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? ¹¹ Now hear me, and send back the captives ^(N)from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.”

¹² Certain 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 war ¹³ and 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.” ¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. ¹⁵ And ^(O)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, ^(P)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, ^(Q)the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria.

^16 (R)At that time King Ahaz sent to the king^[b] of Assyria for help. ¹⁷ For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives. ^18 (S)And the Philistines had made raids on ^(T)the cities in the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco ^(U)with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. ¹⁹ For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made ^(V)Judah act sinfully^[c] and had been very unfaithful to the Lord. ²⁰ So ^(W)Tiglath-pileser^[d] king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. ^21 (X)For 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.

Ahaz's Idolatry

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. ²³ For ^(Y)he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him and said, ^(Z)“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. ²⁴ And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and ^(AA)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 ^(AB)altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every city of Judah he made high places to ^(AC)make offerings to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers. ^26 (AD)Now 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. ²⁷ And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for ^(AE)they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.