Ahaz and the Altar of Damascus
1In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2Ahaz 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 his God, as David his father had done. 3Instead, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel — he even made his son pass through the fire, following the abominations of the nations Yahweh had driven out before the Israelites. 4He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. 5Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to make war on Jerusalem; they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 6At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and drove the Judeans out of it; Edomites came into Elath and have lived there to this day. 7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who have risen against me.” 8Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria. 9The king of Assyria listened to him; he marched up against Damascus, captured it, deported its people to Kir, and put Rezin to death. 10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and when he saw the altar there, he sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and its exact design, down to every detail. 11Uriah the priest built the altar; he made it exactly as king Ahaz had specified from Damascus, finishing it before king Ahaz returned. 12When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and offered sacrifices on it. 13He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14As for the bronze altar that stood before Yahweh, he moved it from the front of the temple — from between his new altar and the house of Yahweh — and placed it on the north side of his altar. 15King Ahaz then commanded Uriah the priest: “On the great altar, burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, with their grain offerings and drink offerings; sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. The bronze altar will be for me to consult.” 16Uriah the priest did exactly as king Ahaz commanded. 17King Ahaz cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the basins from them; he took the Sea down from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone pavement. 18And because of the king of Assyria, he removed from the house of Yahweh the covered walkway for the Sabbath that had been built there, along with the outer entrance for the king. 19As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz, are they not written in the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 20Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
