20. So Tiglath Pileser came to Judah, but instead of helping, he made things worse.
21. Ahaz gave him gifts from the Lord's temple and the king's palace, as well as from the homes of Israel's other leaders. The Assyrian king still refused to help Ahaz.
22. Even after all these terrible things happened to Ahaz, he sinned against the Lord even worse than before.
23. He said to himself, “The Syrian gods must have helped their kings defeat me. Perhaps if I offer sacrifices to those gods, they will help me.” That was the sin that finally led to the downfall of Ahaz, as well as to the destruction of Judah.
24. Ahaz collected all the furnishings of the temple and smashed them to pieces. Then he locked the doors to the temple and set up altars to foreign gods on every street corner in Jerusalem.
25. In every city and town in Judah he built local shrines to worship foreign gods. All this made the Lord God of his ancestors very angry.
26. Everything else Ahaz did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
27. Ahaz died and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs. His son Hezekiah then became king.