He offered his burnt sacrifice and his grain offering. He poured out his libation and sprinkled the blood from his peace offerings on the altar.

He also removed the Sabbath awning that had been built in the temple and the king’s outer entranceway, on account of the king of Assyria.

The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.

They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the Lord angry.

Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example.

So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. He taught them how to worship the Lord.

They were worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.

You must carefully obey at all times the rules, regulations, law, and commandments he wrote down for you. You must not worship other gods.

He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; in this regard there was none like him among the kings of Judah either before or after.

At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated and gave them to the king of Assyria.

They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them.

Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”

He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. Do you really think you will be rescued?

Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God!

This is what the Lord says about him: “The virgin daughter Zion despises you, she makes fun of you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head after you.

Because you rage against me, and the uproar you create has reached my ears; I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

“Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, and how I have carried out your will.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.