Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
“Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these abominations, has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols,
For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.
What then do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not such a land be greatly polluted? You have prostituted yourself with many lovers, and would you return to me? says the Lord.
The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Thus they abandoned the Lord and did not worship him.