2 Chronicles 28

Ahaz Turns to Other Gods

1Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as David his father had done. 2He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he even made cast images for the Baals. 3He burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and he burned his own sons in the fire, following the abominations of the nations that Yahweh had dispossessed before the Israelites. 4He sacrificed and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every green tree. 5So Yahweh his God handed him over to the king of Aram. They struck him, took a great many of his people captive and brought them to Damascus. He was handed over to the king of Israel as well, who struck him a heavy blow. 6Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in a single day, all of them able men, because they had abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. 7Zichri, a warrior of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the commander of the palace, and Elkanah, second to the king. 8The Israelites took two hundred thousand of their own kin captive — women, sons and daughters — and they seized a great deal of plunder from them and carried it to Samaria.

The Prophet Oded

9But a prophet of Yahweh was there, Oded by name. He went out to meet the army as it came to Samaria and said to them, “Look: it was in the fury of Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, against Judah that he handed them over to you, and you have slaughtered them in a rage that has reached to heaven. 10And now you talk of forcing the people of Judah and Jerusalem into slavery, men and women alike. But have you no guilt of your own against Yahweh your God? 11So listen to me: send back the captives you have taken from your own kin, for the burning anger of Yahweh is upon you.” 12Then some of the heads of the Ephraimites — Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum and Amasa son of Hadlai — stood up against those coming back from the campaign 13and told them, “You will not bring the captives in here. What you propose would bring guilt before Yahweh on us, adding to our sins and our guilt. Our guilt is already great, and burning anger rests on Israel.” 14So the armed men gave up the captives and the plunder in front of the officers and the whole assembly. 15The men designated by name stood up and took charge of the captives. From the plunder they clothed everyone among them who was naked: they dressed them, gave them sandals, gave them food and drink, rubbed them with oil, mounted every weak one on a donkey and brought them to their kin at Jericho, the City of Palms. Then they returned to Samaria.

Ahaz Appeals to Assyria

16It was then that King Ahaz sent word to the kings of Assyria, asking them to come to his aid. 17The Edomites had come yet again; they struck Judah and carried off captives. 18And the Philistines had raided the cities of the foothills and of the Negev of Judah, capturing Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there. 19For Yahweh brought Judah low on account of Ahaz king of Israel, who let Judah run wild and broke faith utterly with Yahweh.* 20Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him and pressed him hard instead of strengthening him. 21Ahaz stripped the house of Yahweh, the king’s house and the officers, and made a gift of it to the king of Assyria — and it was no help to him. 22In the time of his own distress this same King Ahaz broke faith with Yahweh still further. 23He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, who had struck him. “Since the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them,” he said, “I will sacrifice to them and they will help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. 24Ahaz gathered up the vessels of the house of God and cut the vessels of the house of God to pieces. He shut the doors of the house of Yahweh and made himself altars on every corner in Jerusalem. 25In every single city of Judah he made high places for burning incense to other gods, provoking Yahweh, the God of his ancestors, to anger. 26The rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27Ahaz lay down with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son became king in his place.