2 Kings 15–16

Chapter 15

Series of Kings: Azariah (Uzziah) over Judah

^1aIn the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah became king.

²He was ^asixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ¹Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

³He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

⁴Only ^athe high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

^5aThe Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he ^blived in a separate house, ¹while Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

⁶Now the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

⁷And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son became king in his place.

Zechariah over Israel

^8aIn the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in Samaria for six months.

⁹He did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

¹⁰Then Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and ^astruck him before the people and ¹killed him, and reigned in his place.

¹¹Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

¹²This is ^athe word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” And so it was.

¹³Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the ^athirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in ^bSamaria.

¹⁴Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from ^aTirzah and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him and became king in his place.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Shallum and his conspiracy which he made, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

¹⁶Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, because they did not open to him; therefore he struck it and ripped up ^aall its women who were with child.

Menahem over Israel

¹⁷In the ^athirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king over Israel and reigned ten years in Samaria.

¹⁸He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

^19aPul, king of Assyria, came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to ^bstrengthen the kingdom ¹under his rule.

²⁰Then Menahem exacted the money from Israel, even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver to pay the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned and did not remain there in the land.

²¹Now the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²²And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son became king in his place.

Pekahiah over Israel

²³In ^athe fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.

²⁴He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

²⁵Then Pekah son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against him and struck him in Samaria, in ^athe castle of the king’s house with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites, and he killed him and became king in his place.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Pekah over Israel

²⁷In ^athe fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, ^bPekah son of Remaliah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.

²⁸He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, ^1aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and ²captured Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and ^bhe carried them captive to Assyria.

³⁰And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him and put him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Jotham over Judah

³²In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of ¹Uzziah king of Judah became king.

^33aHe was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.

^34aHe did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵Only ^athe high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ^bHe built the upper gate of the house of the Lord.

³⁶Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁷In those days ^athe Lord began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.

³⁸And Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.

Chapter 16

Ahaz Reigns over Judah

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, ^aAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king.

^2aAhaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.

³But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, ^aand even made his son pass through the fire, ^baccording to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had ¹driven out from before the sons of Israel.

⁴He ^asacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵Then ^aRezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, ^bbut could not ¹overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered ^aElath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans out of ¹Elath entirely; and the ²Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

Ahaz Seeks Help of Aram

^7aSo Ahaz sent messengers to ^bTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the ¹hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”

^8aAhaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.

^9aSo the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and ^bcaptured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to ^cKir, and put Rezin to death.

Damascus Falls

¹⁰Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ^aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to ^bUrijah the priest the ¹pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship.

¹¹So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, ¹before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus.

¹²When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then ^athe king approached the altar and ¹went up to it,

¹³and ¹burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

^14aThe bronze altar, which was before the Lord, ¹he brought from the front of the house, from between ^bhis altar and the house of the Lord, and he put it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵Then King Ahaz ¹commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar ²burn ^athe morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But ^bthe bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.”

¹⁶So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷Then King Ahaz ^acut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also ^btook down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.

¹⁸The covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written ^ain the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁰So ^aAhaz slept with his fathers, and ^bwas buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.