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)

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II Kings 16

King Ahaz: 735-716 BC (Reign to Death)
King Pekah: 752-732 BC (Reign to Death)

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.

• Twenty is symbolic for “The Strength and Value of a Working Man”.
  • Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king.
  • “Pekah himself was murdered by Hoshea son of Elah. At that time king Jotham of Judah (the Father of Ahaz) had reigned twenty years.” ABARIM Publications.

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.

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.

• Meaning of Names:
  • Pekah: Eye Opener, to be observant.
  • Rezin: Firm, To make oneself acceptable or pleasing, or self willed.
  • Ahaz: To grasp, take hold, seize, take possession.
  • Tiglath-Pileser: Deeper Study reveals the name is a joke of Hebrew derivation by playing with the name’s root word meanings. See II Kings 16 {6 of 7}

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.

• Elath means Terebinth Tree and is a metaphor for Jerusalem.

II Kings 16:⁷ So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser (A later name of Pul, II 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.

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.

• Urijah means: “Yᵊhōvâ is my light (flame)”

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.

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.

• “North” A dark omen. The altar of God is hidden while the new altar for idol worship like Damascus’ idol is brought to the forefront. Darkness itself is symbolic of something hidden.
• During Pekah’s reign, king Tiglath-pileser of Assyria invaded the land of Naphtali “In Israel’s North” and began what would be the Assyrian wholesale deportation of Israel (2 Kings 15:29). Pekah himself was murdered by Hoshea son of Elah. At that time king Jotham of Judah had reigned twenty years.
• Ahaz “hid” the God of his fathers and God “hid” Israel in captivity to Assyria.

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 (died 716 BC), and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah his son (#12 in chart) reigned in his place.

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