In the seventeenth year of Pekah Ahaz son of Jotham, became king of Judah. He was twenty years old and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did what displeased the Lord. He made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations which the Lord drove out from before the children of Israel. He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places and under every green tree. Then Rezin, king of Syria and Pekah, king of Israel came up to fight against Jerusalem and besiege it. But they could not conquer Ahaz. Rezin drove the Jews out of the city Elath and the Edomites inhabited it. Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and let him know, “I am your servant and son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who have risen against me.” Ahaz took the silver and gold from the house of the Lord and from the house of the king and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. He went up against Damascus, captured it and carried away its inhabitants, and killed Rezin. Ahaz went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria.
When he saw the altar in Damascus, king Ahaz sent a drawing of it to the priest Urijah. Urijah built an altar and made it according to what King Ahaz sent him from Damascus. And when Ahaz came from Damascus and saw the altar, he went up and made a burnt offering and his meal offering on it, poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. But he took away the bronze altar so it would not stand between the altar and the house of the Lord, but at the north side beside the new altar. He commanded Urijah, “On the great altar offer the burnt offering and the meal offering in the morning, and in the evening the king’s offering and the peoples’ offering and sprinkle blood on it.” The priest Urijah did all that Ahaz commanded. Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases and broke them and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen and put it on a pavement of stones. And he changed the covered Sabbath hall and the king’s entrance for the king of Assyria’s sake. When Ahaz died, he was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Hezekiah became king in his place.