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.

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