Hostility toward Judah is not abated, and in fact it increases in the next segment of the story, the reign of Ahaz (16:1–20). The Ahaz administration has a bad start: previous kings were censured for not removing the high places, but Ahaz goes a step further by actually worshiping at these installations. Even worse, he adheres to the terrifying practice of child sacrifice, and such conduct presages a litany of compromises and surrenders in this chapter. Ahaz follows the ways of the nations that the Lord drove out, and his egregious conduct paves the way for such na…