37 In those days the Lord began to send xRezin the king of Syria and xPekah the son of Remaliah against Judah. 38 Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

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 ytwenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 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. zHe even burned his son as an offering,1 aaccording to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 bAnd he sacrificed and made offerings con the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 dThen Rezin king of Syria and dPekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz ebut could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered fElath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from fElath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 gSo Ahaz sent messengers to hTiglath-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 itook 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.