MELAKIM 2-16

1 In the seventeenth year of Peqaḥ son of Remalyahu, Aḥaz son of Yotham, sovereign of Yahuḏah, began to reign.

2 Aḥaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Yerushalayim. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 his Elohim, as his father Dawiḏ had done.

3 But he walked in the way of the sovereigns of Yisra’ĕl, and he also made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the gentiles whom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had dispossessed from before the children of Yisra’ĕl.

4 And he slaughtered and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

5 Then Retsin sovereign of Aram and Peqaḥ son of Remalyahu, sovereign of Yisra’ĕl, came up to Yerushalayim, to battle. And they besieged Aḥaz but were unable to overcome him.

6 At that time Retsin sovereign of Aram recovered Ĕylath for Aram, and drove the men of Yahuḏah from Ĕylath. And the Eḏomites went to Ĕylath, and have dwelt there to this day.

7 And Aḥaz sent messengers to Tiḡlath-Pileser sovereign of Ashshur, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the sovereign of Aram and from the hand of the sovereign of Yisra’ĕl, who are rising up against me.”

8 And Aḥaz took the silver and gold that was found in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and in the treasuries of the house of the sovereign, and sent it as a present to the sovereign of Ashshur.

9 And the sovereign of Ashshur listened to him. And the sovereign of Ashshur went up against Dammeseq and captured it, and exiled it to Qir, and he killed Retsin.

10 And Sovereign Aḥaz went to meet Tiḡlath-Pileser sovereign of Ashshur at Dammeseq, and saw an altar that was at Dammeseq. And Sovereign Aḥaz sent to Uriyah the kohĕn a sketch of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.

11 And Uriyah the kohĕn built an altar according to all that Sovereign Aḥaz had sent from Dammeseq. And Uriyah the kohĕn made it before Sovereign Aḥaz came from Dammeseq.

12 And when the sovereign came from Dammeseq, the sovereign saw the altar, and the sovereign approached the altar and made offerings on it.

13 And he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering. And he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

14 And the bronze altar which was before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 he brought from the front of the House, from between the new altar and the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, and put it on the north side of the altar.

15 And Sovereign Aḥaz commanded Uriyah the kohĕn, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening grain offering, and the sovereign’s burnt offering, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering, and their drink offerings. And sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the slaughtering. And the bronze altar is for me to inquire by.”

16 And Uriyah the kohĕn did according to all that Sovereign Aḥaz commanded.

17 And Sovereign Aḥaz cut off the side panels of the stands, and removed the basins from them. And he took down the sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stones.

18 And the covered way which they had built in the House for the Shabbath, and the sovereign’s outer entrance, he took from the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, because of the sovereign of Ashshur.

19 And the rest of the acts of Aḥaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yahuḏah?

20 So Aḥaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of Dawiḏ. And Ḥizqiyahu his son reigned in his place.