¹⁸At the same time the Philistines had attacked towns in the western hills and in the Negev Desert of Judah. They had captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth. They had also captured Soco, Timnah and Gimzo and the villages that were around them. They had settled down in all of them.

¹⁹The Lord had brought Judah down because of Ahaz, their king. Ahaz had stirred up the people of Judah to do evil things. He hadn’t been faithful to the Lord at all.

²⁰Tiglath-Pileser came to Ahaz. But he gave Ahaz trouble instead of help. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria. ²¹Ahaz took some things from the Lord’s temple. He also took some from the royal palace and from the princes. He gave all of them to the king of Assyria. But that didn’t help him.

²²When King Ahaz was in trouble, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord. ²³He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. They had won the battle over him. He thought, “The gods of the kings of Aram have helped them. So I’ll sacrifice to them. Then they’ll help me.” But they brought him down. In fact, they brought the whole nation of Israel down.

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