16. At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria to help him.
17. For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah and carried away captives.
18. The Philistines had invaded the cities of the low country and of the South (the Negeb) of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, and Soco, and also Timnah and Gimzo, with their villages, and they settled there.
19. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for Ahaz had dealt with reckless cruelty against Judah and had been faithless [had transgressed sorely] against the Lord.
20. So Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came to him and distressed him without strengthening him.
21. For Ahaz took [treasure] from the house of the Lord and out of the house of the king and from the princes and gave it as tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help Ahaz.
22. In the time of his distress he became still more unfaithful to the Lord–this same King Ahaz.
23. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him, for he said, Since the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.
24. And Ahaz collected the utensils of the house of God and cut them in pieces; and he shut up the doors of the Lord's temple [the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies] and made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
25. In each city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, provoking to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers.
26. Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
27. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.