16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz
the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
16:2 Twenty years old [was] Ahaz when he began to reign, and
reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not [that which
was] right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his
father.
16:3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even
made his son to pass through the fire, according to the
abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before
the children of Israel.
16:4 And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and
on the hills, and under every green tree.
16:5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of
Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but
could not overcome [him].
16:6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria,
and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath,
and have dwelt there to this day.
16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria,
saying, I [am] thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me
from the hand of the king of Syria, and from the hand of the
king of Israel, who rise up against me.
16:8 And Ahaz 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 [it for] a present to the king of Assyria.
16:9 And the king of Assyria hearkened to him: for the king of
Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the
people of] it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
16:10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser
king of Assyria, and saw an altar that [was] at Damascus: and
king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar,
and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship of it.
16:11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that
king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made
[it] against king Ahaz came from Damascus.
16:12 And when the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the
altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered on it.
16:13 And he burnt his burnt-offering and his meat-offering, and
poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his
peace-offerings upon the altar.
16:14 And he brought also the brazen altar, which [was] before
the LORD, from the front of the house, from between the altar
and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the
altar.
16:15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon
the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the
evening meat-offering, and the king's burnt-sacrifice, and his
meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the
land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; and
sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all
the blood of the sacrifice: and the brazen altar shall be for
me to inquire [by].
16:16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king
Ahaz commanded.
16:17 And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and
removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off
the brazen oxen that [were] under it, and put it upon a
pavement of stones.
16:18 And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the
house, and the king's entry without, he turned from the house
of the LORD for the king of Assyria.
16:19 Now 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?
16:20 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.
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