Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 99
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C hronicles – E Z R A – N E H E M I A H
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mentioned by name came forward and distributed clothes from the plunder to the prisoners who were naked. They provided clothing and sandals
to wear, gave them enough food and drink, and dressed their wounds with
olive oil. They put those who were weak on donkeys and took all the prisoners back to their own people in Jericho, the city of palms. Then they
returned to Samaria.
At that time King Ahaz of Judah asked the king of Assyria for help. The
armies of Edom had again invaded Judah and taken captives. And the Phi
listines had raided towns located in the foothills of Judah and in the Negev
of Judah. They had already captured and occupied Beth-shemesh, Aijalon,
Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with
its villages. The Lord was humbling Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah,
for he had encouraged his people to sin and had been utterly unfaithful to
the Lord.
So when King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria arrived, he attacked Ahaz instead of helping him. Ahaz took valuable items from the Lord’s Temple,
the royal palace, and from the homes of his officials and gave them to the
king of Assyria as tribute. But this did not help him.
Even during this time of trouble, King Ahaz continued to reject the
Lord. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated
him, for he said, “Since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will
help me, too, if I sacrifice to them.” But instead, they led to his ruin and
the ruin of all Judah.
The king took the various articles from the Temple of God and broke
them into pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s Temple so that no one
could worship there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of
Jerusalem. He made pagan shrines in all the towns of Judah for offering
sacrifices to other gods. In this way, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the
God of his ancestors.
The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign and everything he did, from beginning to end, are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. When
Ahaz died, he was buried in Jerusalem but not in the royal cemetery of the
kings of Judah. Then his son Hezekiah became the next king.
Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became the king of Judah,
and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah,
the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight,
just as his ancestor David had done.
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