He walked in the way of the kings of Israel and even made his son pass through the fire, following the abominable practices of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel — Ahaz's fundamental apostasy consists of "walking in the way of the kings of Israel," adopting northern cultic practices and rejecting Davidic-Judean religious traditions. His most abominable act—making his son pass through the fire (הֶעֱבִיר אֶת־בְנוֹ בָּאֵשׁ, *he'evir et-bno ba-esh*)—indicates child sacrifice, likely to Molech (מֹלֶךְ, *Molekh*), a practice explicitly condemned throughout the OT and attributed here to the nations the LORD drove out before Israel. This child sacrifice marks the nadir of Judean religious apostasy: the king sacrifices his own heir to foreign deities. The practice invokes the horror of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), now perverted into actual child murder in service of false gods.

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