Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

II Kings 16 {1 of 7} Type, Prophecy
II Kings 16 {2 of 7} History
II Kings 16 {3 of 7} Meanings and Symbolism
II Kings 16 {4 of 7} Child Sacrifice
II Kings 16 {5 of 7} Places with Prophetic Meanings
II Kings 16 {6 of 7} Very Punny
II Kings 16 {7 of 7} Urijah the Priest

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See: TIMELINE: 501 BC – 770 BC (Then Scroll down to 740 BC)

KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL Chart:

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II Kings 16

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

II Kings 16:¹ In the seventeenth year of Pekah (#37) the son of Remaliah, Ahaz (#11) the son of Jotham (#10), king of Judah, began to reign.

II Kings 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 (Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm), as his father David had done.

II Kings 16:³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire (Hezekiah’s brother), according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) had cast out from before the children of Israel.

• The kings of Israel had a reputation for abominations and idol worship.

II Kings 16:⁴ And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places (places of idols), on the hills, and under every green tree.

II Kings 16:⁵ Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

II Kings 16:⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram Damascus (Syria) captured Elath (Lit. Large Tree; sing. of Eloth) for Syria, and drove the men of Judah from Elath. Then the Edomites (A few ancient mss. translate it as Syrians) went to Elath, and dwell there to this day.

II Kings 16:⁷ So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser (A later name of Pul, 2 Kin. 15:19) king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria (Rezin) and from the hand of the king of Israel (Pekah), who rise up against me.”

II Kings 16:⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.

II Kings 16:⁹ So the king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

II Kings 16:¹⁰ Now 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 design of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.

• High priest during the reign of Ahaz. According to Isa. viii. 2, he was taken as a faithful witness by Isaiah when the prophet married the mother of Maher-shalal-ḥash-baz. II Kings 16:10-16 states that Ahaz sent Uriah the pattern of an altar (idol) seen by him at Damascus after the conquest of the city by Tiglath-pileser, directing the prophet to erect a similar one in the Temple, for the offering of certain sacrifices. In the list of high priests given in I Chron. v. 30-40 Uriah’s name does not occur, although it is interpolated in Josephus, “Ant.” x. 8, § 6.
  https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14605-uriah-urijah

II Kings 16:¹¹ Then Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So Urijah the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus.

• Since Uijah (Uriah) the priest was called a “faithful witness” in Isaiah 8:2. He must have been in a hard pressed situation to follow Ahaz’s instructions; not only to build the altar but perform heathen rituals given to the people as feasts for the Lord.

II Kings 16:¹² And when the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king approached the altar and made offerings on it.

• “Ahaz didn’t merely adopt an inconsequential Assyrian building style; he assumed the Assyrian modus operandi as core principle of his government, with far reaching and deeply felt consequences for the people of Judah…”
  Abrarim Publications

II Kings 16:¹³ So he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering; and he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

II Kings 16:¹⁴ He also brought the bronze altar which was before the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), from the front of the temple (Lit. house)—from between the new altar and the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ)—and put it on the north (H6828 ṣāp̄ôn gloomy, dark, hidden) side of the new altar.

II Kings 16:¹⁵ Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great new altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. And the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.”

II Kings 16:¹⁶ Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

II Kings 16:¹⁷ And King Ahaz cut off the panels of the carts, and removed the lavers from them; and he took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stones.

II Kings 16:¹⁸ Also he removed the Sabbath pavilion which they had built in the temple, and he removed the king’s outer entrance from the house of the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), on account of the king of Assyria.

II Kings 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?

II Kings 16:²⁰ So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah his son (#12 in chart) reigned in his place.

• Isaiah 8:⁵ The Lord also spoke to me (Isaiah) again, saying:
  ⁶ “Inasmuch as these people refused
  The waters of Shiloah (Peace) that flow softly,
  And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son (The war of Syria);
  ⁷ Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them
  The waters of the River (like a flood), strong and mighty—
  The king of Assyria and all his glory;
  He will go up over all his channels
  And go over all his banks (A symbolic “flood”).
  ⁸ He will pass through Judah,
  He will overflow and pass over,
  He will reach up to the neck;
  And the stretching out of his wings
  Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel (Lit. God-With-Us).
  • When Jesus returns to set up his kingdom on earth and rule from Jerusalem at the end of the seven year Tribulation.

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