15. Then the men who were designated by name took charge of the captives and provided clothes for their naked ones from the plunder. They clothed them, gave them sandals, food and drink, dressed their wounds, and provided donkeys for all the feeble. The Israelites brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, among their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.
16. At that time King Ahaz asked the king of Assyria for help.
17. The Edomites came again, attacked Judah, and took captives.
18. The Philistines also raided the cities of the Judean foothills and the Negev of Judah and captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its villages, Timnah and its villages, Gimzo and its villages, and they lived there.
19. For the Lord humbled Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah, who threw off restraint in Judah and was unfaithful to the Lord.
20. Then Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against Ahaz; he oppressed him and did not give him support.
21. Although Ahaz plundered the Lord’s temple and the palace of the king and of the rulers and gave the plunder to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.
22. At the time of his distress, King Ahaz himself became more unfaithful to the Lord.
23. He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him; he said, “Since the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me.” But they were the downfall of him and of all Israel.
24. Then Ahaz gathered up the utensils of God’s temple, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the Lord’s temple, and made himself altars on every street corner in Jerusalem.
25. He made high places in every city of Judah to offer incense to other gods, and he provoked the Lord, the God of his ancestors.
26. As for the rest of his deeds and all his ways, from beginning to end, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
27. Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city, in Jerusalem, but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah became king in his place.