Pekah's seventeenth year (v. 1) was 735 B.C. Ahaz did not follow David's example of godliness (v. 2). Rather he followed the kings of Israel and those of his pagan neighbors and went so far as offering at least one of his sons as a human sacrifice (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31; cf. 3:27).103These sacrificial rites took place near the confluence of the Hinnom and Kidron valleys at a place called Topheth. This place developed a reputation for wickedness and then filth because it became a constantly burning garbage heap. Jesus compared it to the place of eternal punishment (Gehenna; cf. Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; et al).
". . . desperate to solve his political problems, Judah's king becomes a dedicated polytheist in hopes that some god may deliver him from his trouble."104
