Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.
Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him strengthen his control of the kingdom.
Then Asa removed silver and gold from the storehouses of the house of the Lord and palace of the king, and he sent it to Ben-hadad king of Aram in Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying,
For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves with the children of strangers.
The Lord shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.”