Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Ahaz, Jotham's son, became king of Judah in the seventeenth year of Pekah, Remaliah's son.
1
In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah.
2 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn't do what was right in the LORD's eyes, unlike his ancestor David.
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Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn't behave in the eyes of his God; he wasn't at all like his ancestor David.
3 Instead, he walked in the ways of Israel's kings. He even burned his own son alive, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
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Instead he followed in the track of the kings of Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of "passing his son through the fire" - a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans God had earlier thrown out of the country.
4 He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on every hill and beneath every shady tree.
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He also participated in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place.
5 Then Aram's King Rezin and Israel's King Pekah, Remaliah's son, came up to Jerusalem to fight. They surrounded Ahaz, but they weren't able to defeat him.
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Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel ganged up against Jerusalem, throwing a siege around the city, but they couldn't make further headway against Ahaz.
6 At that time Aram's King Rezin recovered Elath for the Arameans, driving the Judeans out of Elath. The Edomites came to Elath and settled there, and that's still the case now.
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At about this same time and on another front, the king of Edom recovered the port of Elath and expelled the men of Judah. The Edomites occupied Elath and have been there ever since.
7 Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria's King Tiglath-pileser, saying, "I'm your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the power of the kings of Aram and Israel. Both of them are attacking me!"
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Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria with this message: "I'm your servant and your son. Come and save me from the heavy-handed invasion of the king of Aram and the king of Israel. They're attacking me right now."
8 And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was in the LORD's temple and in the palace treasuries, and sent a gift to Assyria's king.
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Then Ahaz robbed the treasuries of the palace and The Temple of God of their gold and silver and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe.
9 The Assyrian king heard the request and marched against Damascus. He captured it and sent its citizens into exile to Kir. He also killed Rezin.
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The king of Assyria responded to him. He attacked and captured Damascus. He deported the people to Nineveh as exiles. Rezin he killed.
10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet up with Assyria's King Tiglath-pileser. King Ahaz noticed the altar that was in Damascus, and he sent the altar's plan and details for its construction to the priest Uriah.
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King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of blueprints of the altar.
11 Uriah built the altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; he had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.
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Uriah the priest built the altar to the specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar.
12 When the king arrived from Damascus, he inspected the altar. He came close to it, then went up on it,
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The minute the king saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship with a full course of offerings:
13 burning his entirely burned offering and grain offering, pouring out his drink offering, and sprinkling the blood of his well-being sacrifices on the altar.
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Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke, Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the Peace-Offerings - the works.
14 As for the bronze altar that used to stand before the LORD, Ahaz moved it away from the front of the temple where it had stood between the main altar and the LORD's temple. He put it on the north side of the new altar.
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But the old bronze Altar that signaled the presence of God he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the side of his new altar.
15 Then King Ahaz ordered the priest Uriah, saying, “Burn the following sacrifices on the main altar: in the morning, the entirely burned offering; in the evening, the grain offering; the king's entirely burned offering and his grain offering; the entirely burned offering for all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. "Sprinkle all the blood of the entirely burned offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices on it. I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance."
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Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest: "From now on offer all the sacrifices on the new altar, the great altar: morning Whole-Burnt-Offerings, evening Grain-Offerings, the king's Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, the people's Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, and also their Drink-Offerings. Splash all the blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices against this altar. The old bronze Altar will be for my personal use.
16 Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz commanded.
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The priest Uriah followed King Ahaz's orders to the letter.
17 King Ahaz cut off the side panels from the stands and removed the basins from them. He took the Sea down from the bronze bulls that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.
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Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea unceremoniously on the stone pavement.
18 He also took away the sabbath canopy that had been built in the temple. He removed the royal entrance outside the LORD's temple. This was done because of the Assyrian king.
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Finally, he removed any distinctive features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria.
19 The rest of Ahaz's deeds, aren't they written in the official records of Judah's kings?
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The rest of the life and times of Ahaz is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
20 Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in David's City. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.
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Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Hezekiah became the next king.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.