2 Chronicles 28
28
King Ahaz of Judah
(2 Kings 16.1-4)
1Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years.
Ahaz was nothing like his ancestor David. Ahaz disobeyed the LORD 2and was as sinful as the kings of Israel. He made idols of the god Baal, 3and he offered sacrifices in Hinnom Valley. Worst of all, Ahaz sacrificed his own sons, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the LORD had forced out of Israel. 4Ahaz offered sacrifices at the local shrines,#28.4 local shrines: See the note at 11.15. as well as on every hill and in the shade of large trees.
Syria and Israel attack Judah
(2 Kings 16.5,6)
5-6Ahaz and the people of Judah sinned and turned away from the LORD, the God their ancestors had worshipped. So the LORD punished them by letting their enemies defeat them.#2 K 16.5; Is 7.1.
The king of Syria attacked Judah and took many of its people to Damascus as prisoners. King Pekah#28.5,6 Pekah: Hebrew “Pekah son of Remaliah”. of Israel later defeated Judah and killed one hundred and twenty thousand of its bravest soldiers in one day. 7During that battle, an Israelite soldier named Zichri killed three men from Judah: Maaseiah the king's son; Azrikam, the official in charge of the palace; and Elkanah, the king's second in command. 8The Israelite troops captured two hundred thousand women and children and took them back to their capital city of Samaria, along with a large amount of their possessions. They did these things even though the people of Judah were their own relatives.
Oded the prophet condemns Israel
9Oded lived in Samaria and was one of the LORD's prophets. He met Israel's army on their way back from Judah and said to them:
The LORD God of your ancestors let you defeat Judah's army only because he was angry with them. But you should not have been so cruel! 10If you make slaves of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, you will be as guilty as they are of sinning against the LORD.
11Send these prisoners back home—they are your own relatives. If you don't, the LORD will punish you in his anger.
12About the same time, four of Israel's leaders arrived. They were Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai. They agreed with Oded that the Israelite troops were wrong, 13and they said:
If you bring these prisoners into Samaria, that will be one more thing we've done to sin against the LORD. And he is already angry enough with us.
14So in front of the leaders and the crowd, the troops handed over their prisoners and the property they had taken from Judah. 15The four leaders took some of the stolen clothes and gave them to the prisoners who needed something to wear. They later gave them all a new change of clothes and shoes, then provided something for them to eat and drink, and cleaned their wounds with olive oil. They gave donkeys to those who were too weak to walk, and led all of them back to Jericho, the city known for its palm trees. The leaders then returned to Samaria.
Ahaz asks the king of Assyria for help
(2 Kings 16.7-9)
16-18Some time later, the Edomites attacked the eastern part of Judah again and carried away prisoners. And at the same time, the Philistines raided towns in the western foothills and in the Southern Desert. They conquered the towns of Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo, including the villages around them. Then some of the Philistines went to live in these places.
Ahaz sent a message to King Tiglath Pileser of Assyria and begged for help. 19But God was punishing Judah with these disasters, because Ahaz had disobeyed him and refused to stop Judah from sinning. 20So Tiglath Pileser came to Judah, but instead of helping, he made things worse. 21Ahaz gave him gifts from the LORD's temple and the king's palace, as well as from the homes of Israel's other leaders. The Assyrian king still refused to help Ahaz.
The final sin of Ahaz and his death
22Even after all these terrible things happened to Ahaz, he sinned against the LORD even worse than before. 23He said to himself, “The Syrian gods must have helped their kings defeat me. Perhaps if I offer sacrifices to those gods, they will help me.” That was the sin that finally led to the downfall of Ahaz, as well as to the destruction of Judah.
24Ahaz collected all the furnishings of the temple and smashed them to pieces. Then he locked the doors to the temple and set up altars to foreign gods on every street corner in Jerusalem. 25In every city and town in Judah he built local shrines#28.25 local shrines: See the note at 11.15. to worship foreign gods. All this made the LORD God of his ancestors very angry.
26Everything else Ahaz did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 27Ahaz died and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs. His son Hezekiah then became king.#Is 14.28.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
2 Chronicles 28
28
1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what is right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David did.
2 Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. Moreover, he also cast statues for the Baals.
3 It is he who burned incense in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. And he purified his sons by fire, in accord with the ritual of the nations that the Lord put to death at the advent of the sons of Israel.
4 Also, he was sacrificing and burning incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
5 And so the Lord, his God, delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, who struck him and took great plunder from his kingdom. And he carried it away to Damascus. Also, he was delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, and he struck him with great affliction.
6 And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed, on one day, one hundred twenty thousand, all of them men of war from Judah, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.
7 In the same time, Zichri, a powerful man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah, the son of the king, and Azrikam, the governor of his house, and also Elkanah, who was second to the king.
8 And the sons of Israel seized, from their brothers, two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls, and immense plunder. And they took it away to Samaria.
9 At that time, there was a prophet of the Lord there, named Oded. And going out to meet the army arriving in Samaria, he said to them: "Behold, the Lord, the God of your fathers, having become angry against Judah, has delivered them into your hands. But you have killed them by atrocities, so that your cruelty has reached up to heaven.
10 Moreover, you wanted to subjugate the sons of Judah and Jerusalem as your men and women servants, which is a work that should never be done. And so you sinned in this matter against the Lord your God.
11 But listen to my counsel, and release the captives, whom you have brought from your brothers. For a great fury of the Lord is hanging over you."
12 And so, some of the leaders of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa, the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were arriving from the battle.
13 And they said to them: "You shall not lead back captives to here, lest we sin against the Lord. Why are you willing to add to our sins, and to build upon our old offenses? For indeed, the sin is great, and the furious anger of the Lord is hanging over Israel."
14 And the warriors released the spoils and all that they had seized, in the sight of the leaders and the entire multitude.
15 And the men, whom we mentioned above, rose up and took the captives. All those who were naked, they clothed from the spoils. And when they had clothed them, and had given them shoes, and had refreshed them with food and drink, and had anointed them because of the hardship, and had cared for them, whoever was not able to walk and whoever was feeble in body, they set them upon beasts of burden, and they led them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers, and they themselves returned to Samaria.
16 In that time, king Ahaz sent to the king of the Assyrians, requesting assistance.
17 And the Edomites arrived and struck down many of Judah, and they seized great plunder.
18 Also, the Philistines spread out among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Judah. And they seized Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and also Soco, and Timnah, and Gimzo, with their villages, and they lived in them.
19 For the Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz, the king of Judah, since he had stripped it of help, and had shown contempt for the Lord.
20 And he led against him Tilgath-pilneser, the king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him and laid waste to him, without resistance.
21 And so Ahaz, despoiling the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings and the leaders, gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it profited him nothing.
22 Moreover, in the time of his anguish, he also added to his contempt against the Lord. King Ahaz himself, by himself,
23 immolated victims to the gods of Damascus, those who had struck him. And he said: "The gods of the kings of Syria assist them, and so I will please them with victims, and they will help me." But to the contrary, they had been the ruin of him and of all Israel.
24 And so, Ahaz, having despoiled and broken apart all the vessels of the house of God, closed up the doors of the temple of God, and made for himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.
25 Also, he constructed altars in all the cities of Judah, in order to burn frankincense, and so he provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to wrath.
26 But the rest of his words, and all his works, the first and the last, have been written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27 And Ahaz slept with his fathers. And they buried him in the city of Jerusalem. And they did not allow him to be in the sepulchers of the kings of Israel. And his son, Hezekiah, reigned in his place.
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