2Ki 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.

2Ki 16:3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel.

2Ki 16:4 He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

2Ki 16:5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

2Ki 16:6 At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

2Ki 16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me."

2Ki 16:8 Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.

2Ki 16:9 So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

2Ki 16:10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship.

2Ki 16:11 So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus.

2Ki 16:12 When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then the king approached the altar and went up to it,

2Ki 16:13 and burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

2Ki 16:14 The bronze altar, which was before the Lord, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and he put it on the north side of his altar.

2Ki 16:15 Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, "Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by."

2Ki 16:16 So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

2Ki 16:17 Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.

2Ki 16:18 The covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.

2Ki 16:19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

2Ki 16:20 So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

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2Ki 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years.

2Ki 17:2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

2Ki 17:3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

2Ki 17:4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.

2Ki 17:5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years.

2Ki 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

2Ki 17:7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods

2Ki 17:8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced.

2Ki 17:9 The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.

2Ki 17:10 They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

2Ki 17:11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord.

2Ki 17:12 They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."

2Ki 17:13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets."

2Ki 17:14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

2Ki 17:15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them.

2Ki 17:16 They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.

2Ki 17:17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him.

2Ki 17:18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.

2Ki 17:19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced.

2Ki 17:20 The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.

2Ki 17:21 When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin.

2Ki 17:22 The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them

2Ki 17:23 until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

2Ki 17:24 The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.

2Ki 17:25 At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them.

2Ki 17:26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land."

2Ki 17:27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Take there one of the priests whom you carried away into exile and let him go and live there; and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land."

2Ki 17:28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

2Ki 17:29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

2Ki 17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

2Ki 17:31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.

2Ki 17:32 They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.

2Ki 17:33 They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.

2Ki 17:34 To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel;

2Ki 17:35 with whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.

2Ki 17:36 But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.

2Ki 17:37 The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.

2Ki 17:38 The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

2Ki 17:39 But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."

2Ki 17:40 However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom.

2Ki 17:41 So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

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2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done.

2Ch 28:2 But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; he also made molten images for the Baals.

2Ch 28:3 Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel.

2Ch 28:4 He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree.

2Ch 28:5 Wherefore, the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram; and they defeated him and carried away from him a great number of captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who inflicted him with heavy casualties.

2Ch 28:6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers.

2Ch 28:7 And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the ruler of the house and Elkanah the second to the king.

2Ch 28:8 The sons of Israel carried away captive of their brethren 200,000 women, sons and daughters; and they took also a great deal of spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army which came to Samaria and said to them, "Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has even reached heaven.

2Ch 28:10 Now you are proposing to subjugate for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem for male and female slaves. Surely, do you not have transgressions of your own against the Lord your God?

2Ch 28:11 Now therefore, listen to me and return the captives whom you captured from your brothers, for the burning anger of the Lord is against you."

2Ch 28:12 Then some of the heads of the sons of Ephraim--Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai--arose against those who were coming from the battle,

2Ch 28:13 and said to them, "You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the Lord adding to our sins and our guilt; for our guilt is great so that His burning anger is against Israel."

2Ch 28:14 So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the officers and all the assembly.

2Ch 28:15 Then the men who were designated by name arose, took the captives, and they clothed all their naked ones from the spoil; and they gave them clothes and sandals, fed them and gave them drink, anointed them with oil, led all their feeble ones on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers; then they returned to Samaria.

2Ch 28:16 At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.

2Ch 28:17 For again the Edomites had come and attacked Judah and carried away captives.

2Ch 28:18 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland and of the Negev of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, and Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there.

2Ch 28:19 For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the Lord.

2Ch 28:20 So Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.

2Ch 28:21 Although Ahaz took a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the palace of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.

2Ch 28:22 Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the Lord.

2Ch 28:23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, "Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me." But they became the downfall of him and all Israel.

2Ch 28:24 Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he closed the doors of the house of the Lord and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.

2Ch 28:25 In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger.

2Ch 28:26 Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

2Ch 28:27 So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

====== TODAY =================
Day 196 -- 15 July:   2 Kings 16-17;

Day 194 -- 13 July:   Isaiah 9-12; 2 Chronicles 27
Day 195 -- 14 July:   Micah 1-7

===== COMING DAYS =================
Day 197 -- 16 July:   Isaiah 13-17

Day 198 -- 17 July:   Isaiah 18-22

Day 199 -- 18 July:   Isaiah 23-27

Day 200 -- 19 July:   2 Kings 18:1-8;2 Chronicles 29-31; Psalm 48
Day 201 -- 20 July:   Hosea 1-7