Open English Translation 2KI Chapter 16

16 In the seventeenth year of Remaliah’s son Pekah’s reign over Israel, Yotam’s son Ahaz began to reign over Yehudah. 2 Ahaz was twenty when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years, but he didn’t follow what his God Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor David had done. 3 Actually he followed the behaviour of the kings of Israel, and he even sacrificed his son as a burnt offering like they do in the nations that Yahweh hated and which Yahweh had driven out of the land as the Israelis had entered.[ref] 4 Also he sacrificed on the hilltop shrines and burnt incense on them, and on the hills and under every large tree.

5 Then Aram’s King Retsin and Israel’s King Pekah (Remalyah’s son) came uphill to attack Yerushalem, and they layed siege against King Ahaz but they weren’t able to conquer the city.[ref] 6 At that time, Aram’s King Retsin recaptured Elat City for Aram, then he drove the Judeans out of Elat and Arameans moved in instead and they have lived there to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria’s King Tiglat-Pileser, “I’m your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the kings of Aram and Israel who’re here attacking me.” 8 Ahaz took the gold and silver from Yahweh’s temple and from the palace treasuries, and sent it as a gift to the Assyrian king. 9 The king of Assyria listened to him and went in and attacked Damascus, and he captured it and exiled its people to Kir, and he executed King Retsin.

10 King Ahaz went to meet the Assyrian King Tiglat-Pileser in Damascus, and he saw the altar that was there. So he sent a drawing and the detailed measurements of the altar to the priest Uriyyah. 11 So Uriyyah built the altar according to the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king got back to Yerushalem and saw the altar, he went up onto it 13 and made his burnt offering and his grain offering, and he poured out his drink offering, and he sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings onto the altar. 14 He got the bronze altar that had been dedicated to Yahweh moved back away from the temple and placed beside the newer, bigger altar.[ref] 15 Then King Ahaz ordered Urriyah, “Use the large altar for the morning burnt offerings and the evening grain offerings, and for the king’s burnt offerings and grain offerings, and for the people’s burnt offerings and grain offerings and drink offerings. Use it for sprinkling all the blood of the burnt offerings and of the sacrifices on. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 So Uriyyah the priest put everything into effect that King Ahaz had commanded.

17 Then King Ahaz cut the frames off the stands outside the temple, and he removed the basins off them. He took down ‘The Sea’ that had been sitting on top of bronze bulls and put it on the stone floor.[ref] 18 He also removed the canopy that had been built at the temple for use on the Rest Days, and blocked up the king’s outer entrance to the temple so that the Assyrian king couldn’t use it.

19 Everything else that Ahaz said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 20 Then Ahaz died and was buried in their ancestral tomb in the city of David, and his son Hizkiyyah (Hezekiah) replaced him as king.[ref]