2 Kings 16–20

Ahaz King of Judah

16Ahaz was the son of Jotham king of Judah. Ahaz became king of Judah in the seventeenth year Pekah son of Remaliah was king of Israel. ²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled sixteen years in Jerusalem. Unlike his ancestor David, he did not do what the Lord his God said was right. ³Ahaz did the same things the kings of Israel had done. He even made his son pass through fire. He did the same hateful sins as the nations had done whom the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites. ⁴Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense at the places where gods were worshiped, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to attack Jerusalem. They surrounded Ahaz but could not defeat him. ⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram took back the city of Elath for Aram, and he forced out all the people of Judah. Then Edomites moved into Elath, and they still live there today.

⁷Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your friend. Come and save me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸Ahaz took the silver and gold that was in the Temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the palace, and he sent these as a gift to the king of Assyria. ⁹So the king of Assyria listened to Ahaz. He attacked Damascus and captured it and sent all its people away to Kir. And he killed Rezin.

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. Ahaz saw an altar at Damascus, and he sent plans and a pattern of this altar to Uriah the priest. ¹¹So Uriah the priest built an altar, just like the plans King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus. Uriah finished the altar before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. ¹²When the king arrived from Damascus, he saw the altar and went near and offered sacrifices on it. ¹³He burned his burnt offerings and grain offerings and poured out his drink offering. He also sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.

¹⁴Ahaz moved the bronze altar that was before the Lord at the front of the Temple. It was between Ahaz’s altar and the Temple of the Lord, but he put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “On the large altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, and the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering for all the people of the land. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and of the sacrifice. But I will use the bronze altar to ask questions of God.” ¹⁶So Uriah the priest did everything as King Ahaz commanded him.

¹⁷Then King Ahaz took off the side panels from the bases and removed the washing bowls from the top of the bases. He also took the large bowl, which was called the Sea, off the bronze bulls that held it up, and he put it on a stone base. ¹⁸Ahaz took away the platform for the royal throne, which had been built at the Temple of the Lord. He also took away the outside entrance for the king. He did these things because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹The other things Ahaz did as king are written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ²⁰Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, and Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king in his place.

Hoshea, Last King of Israel

17Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel during Ahaz’s twelfth year as king of Judah. Hoshea ruled in Samaria nine years. ²He did what the Lord said was wrong, but he was not as bad as the kings of Israel who had ruled before him.

³Shalmaneser king of Assyria came to attack Hoshea. Hoshea had been Shalmaneser’s servant and had made the payments to Shalmaneser that he had demanded. ⁴But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea had made plans against him by sending messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Hoshea had also stopped giving Shalmaneser the payments, which he had paid every year in the past. For that, the king put Hoshea in prison. ⁵Then the king of Assyria came and attacked all the land of Israel. He surrounded Samaria and attacked it for three years. ⁶He defeated Samaria in the ninth year Hoshea was king, and he took the Israelites away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

Israelites Punished for Sin

⁷All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God. He had brought them out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of the king of Egypt, but the Israelites had honored other gods. ⁸They lived like the nations the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of them. They lived as their evil kings had shown them, ⁹secretly sinning against the Lord their God. They built places to worship gods in all their cities, from the watchtower to the strong, walled city. ¹⁰They put up stone pillars to gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹The Israelites burned incense everywhere gods were worshiped, just as the nations who lived there before them had done, whom the Lord had forced out of the land. The Israelites did wicked things that made the Lord angry. ¹²They served idols when the Lord had said, “You must not do this.” ¹³The Lord used every prophet and seer to warn Israel and Judah. He said, “Stop your evil ways and obey my commands and laws. Follow all the teachings that I commanded your ancestors, the teachings that I gave you through my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴But the people would not listen. They were stubborn, just as their ancestors had been who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵They rejected the Lord’s laws and the agreement he had made with their ancestors. And they refused to listen to his warnings. They worshiped useless idols and became useless themselves. They did what the nations around them did, which the Lord had warned them not to do.

¹⁶The people rejected all the commands of the Lord their God. They molded statues of two calves, and they made an Asherah idol. They worshiped all the stars of the sky and served Baal. ¹⁷They made their sons and daughters pass through fire and tried to find out the future by magic and witchcraft. They always chose to do what the Lord said was wrong, which made him angry. ¹⁸Because he was very angry with the people of Israel, he removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.

Judah Is Also Guilty

¹⁹But even Judah did not obey the commands of the Lord their God. They did what the Israelites had done, ²⁰so the Lord rejected all the people of Israel. He punished them and let others destroy them; he threw them out of his presence. ²¹When the Lord separated them from the family of David, the Israelites made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam led the Israelites away from the Lord and led them to sin greatly. ²²So they continued to do all the sins Jeroboam did. They did not stop doing these sins ²³until the Lord removed the Israelites from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So the Israelites were taken out of their land to Assyria, and they have been there to this day.

The Beginning of the Samaritan People

²⁴The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and put them in the cities of Samaria to replace the Israelites. These people took over Samaria and lived in the cities. ²⁵At first they did not worship the Lord, so he sent lions among them which killed some of them. ²⁶The king of Assyria was told, “You sent foreigners into the cities of Samaria who do not know the law of the god of the land. This is why he has sent lions among them. The lions are killing them because they don’t know what the god wants.”

²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send back one of the priests you took away. Let him live there and teach the people what the god wants.” ²⁸So one of the priests who had been carried away from Samaria returned to live in Bethel. And he taught the people how to honor the Lord.

²⁹But each nation made gods of its own and put them in the cities where they lived and in the temples where gods were worshiped. These temples had been built by the Samaritans. ³⁰The people from Babylon made Succoth Benoth their god. The people from Cuthah worshiped Nergal. The people of Hamath worshiped Ashima. ³¹The Avvites worshiped Nibhaz and Tartak. The Sepharvites burned their children in the fire, sacrificing them to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³²They also honored the Lord, but they chose priests for the places where gods were worshiped. The priests were chosen from among themselves, and they made sacrifices for the people. ³³The people honored the Lord but also served their own gods, just as the nations did from which they had been brought. ³⁴Even today they do as they did in the past. They do not worship the Lord nor obey his rules and commands. They do not obey the teachings or the commands of the Lord, which he gave to the children of Jacob, whom he had named Israel. ³⁵The Lord had made an agreement with them and had commanded them, “Do not honor other gods. Do not bow down to them or worship them or offer sacrifices to them. ³⁶Worship the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and strength. Bow down to him and offer sacrifices to him. ³⁷Always obey the rules, orders, teachings, and commands he wrote for you. Do not honor other gods. ³⁸Do not forget the agreement I made with you, and do not honor other gods. ³⁹Instead worship the Lord your God, who will save you from all your enemies.”

⁴⁰But the Israelites did not listen. They kept on doing the same things they had done before. ⁴¹So these nations honored the Lord but also worshiped their idols, and their children and grandchildren still do as their ancestors did.

Hezekiah King of Judah

18Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah became king during the third year Hoshea son of Elah…