2 Kings 16:7

AHAZ CALLS IN TIGLATH-PILESER; THE KING OF ASSYRIA

"So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying I am thy servant and thy son; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin."

Snaith has an excellent summary of what is revealed here. "Rezin of Syria-Damascus and Pekah of Israel tried to bully Ahaz into joining their coalition against their common Assyrian overlord. Ahaz called for help from Assyria, buying it with great treasure, and was saved from his immediate enemies. Damascus was captured, its people deported, and their king Rezin killed."[12] "This was the end of Syrian Damascus as a power.[13] This destruction of Damascus had been prophesied by Amos (Amos 1:3-5). "The word translated `present' in 2 Kings 16:8 is the same word also rendered `bribe'."[14]

This request of Ahaz for Assyrian help must have been celebrated gloriously in the pagan temples of Nineveh, because, Assyria which had designs against Egypt would naturally have to conquer Judah first; and now, with no cost whatever to Assyria, Judah became, to all intents and purposes, a vassal of Assyria.

The foolishness of Ahaz in what he did could have been prevented if he had heeded the warning of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:4ff), but that weak, wicked monarch followed his own secular advisers, and only the providential slaughter of Sennacherib's army prevented the destruction of Judah much sooner than it eventually happened.