Then certain leaders of the people of Ephraim—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came back from the war. They said to them, "You must not bring the captives here, for you intend something that will bring on us sin against Yahweh, to add to our sins and trespasses, for our trespass is great, and there is burning anger against Israel." So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the leaders and all the assembly. The men who were assigned by name got up and took the captives, and clothed all who were naked among them with the plunder. They clothed them and gave them sandals. They gave them food to eat and drink. They anointed them and put the weak ones on donkeys. They took them back to their families in Jericho, (called the City of Palms). Then they returned to Samaria. At that time King Ahaz sent messengers to the kings of Assyria to ask them to help him. For once again the Edomites had come and attacked Judah, carrying captives away. The Philistines also invaded the cities of the lowlands and of the Negev of Judah. They took Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soko with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo with its villages. They went to live in those places. For Yahweh humbled Judah because of Ahaz, king of Israel; for he had acted wickedly in Judah and had been very faithless against Yahweh. Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came to him and troubled him instead of strengthening him. For Ahaz plundered the house of Yahweh and the houses of the king and the leaders, to give the valuable things to the kings of Assyria. But doing this did not benefit him. This same King Ahaz became even more faithless against Yahweh in his time of suffering. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, gods that had defeated him. He said, "Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them, so that they might help me." But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. Ahaz gathered together the furnishings of the house of God and cut them to pieces. He shut the doors of the house of Yahweh and he made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. In every city of Judah he made high places to burn sacrifices to other gods. He provoked Yahweh, the God of his ancestors, to anger. Now the rest of his deeds, and all his ways, first and last, see, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Ahaz lay down with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. Hezekiah, his son, became king in his place.
