2 Chronicles 28

2 Chronicles 28
Ahaz reigned as long as his father, sixteen years, but they were years marked by an immediate and swift decline from the standard maintained by the four kings before him. Outstripping all his forefathers of the house of David, Ahaz walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, even made molten images for the Baals, burned incense (or offered burnt offerings) in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons in the fire, according to the idol worshiping practices of the nations God had dispossessed from before the children of Israel by Joshua; he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Such a course could have but one outcome—judgment, swift and unsparing.
The king of Syria, Rezin, attacked Judah, and God gave him victory, so that he carried away a great multitude as captives, and brought them to Damascus. The king of Israel, Pekah, also came against Ahaz and smote him with a great slaughter;—120,000 in one day.
Zichri, a mighty man of the king of Israel, slew Maaseiah, the king's son, Azrikam, the govenor of the house, and Elkanah the second to the king. 200,000 of the people of Judah were carried away captive to Samaria, and while through God's gracious intervention, they were allowed to return, the humiliation of Judah was great though the full object of the kings of Syria and Israel, who had planned to set up a king of their own choice over Judah, (Isaiah 7:66Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: (Isaiah 7:6)), failed.
Because of these disasters, Ahaz sent east for help from the kings of Assyria, disregarding the voice of God (Isaiah 7:10-2510Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 22And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. (Isaiah 7:10‑25)),—help which did vastly more harm than good, as he had been told, and as Isaiah learned. (Isaiah 8:1-8,1Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. 3And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria. 5The Lord spake also unto me again, saying, 6Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son; 7Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: 8And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. (Isaiah 8:1‑8) etc.) See also Hosea 5:13-1513When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. (Hosea 5:13‑15). Before the Assyrians arrived, the Edomites came and smote Judah, carrying away captives, and the Philistines invaded the cities of the lowland and the south, and possessed themselves of a number of towns.
The Assyrians came, ostensibly to Ahaz's help, but they troubled him, and did not support him.
Ahaz went to Damascus to meet his powerful ally, and seeing there the idol altar of the king of Syria, ordered it to be duplicated at Jerusalem. When the new altar was made, Ahaz made sacrifices thereon to the gods of Damascus and told the priest to use it instead of that which Solomon had provided (2 Kings 16:10-1810And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. 11And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. 12And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. 13And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. 14And he brought also the brazen altar, which was before the Lord, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the altar. 15And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by. 16Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. 17And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones. 18And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria. (2 Kings 16:10‑18)).
Still more of his doings are given us in the chapter just referred to, and in our chapter (verses 24-25).
At length his course was ended, and he died, leaving behind him a record of, to that time, unsurpassed evil among the kings of Judah.