How did Ephraim's leaders respond to Oded's warning about Juda's captives?

Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done, but walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and cast statues for Baalim. He burnt incense in the valley of Benennom and consecrated his sons in the fire according to the manner of the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. He also sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, upon the hills, and under every green tree.

Because of this infidelity, the Lord delivered Achaz into the hands of the king of Syria, who defeated him, took a great booty out of his kingdom, and carried it to Damascus. Achaz was likewise delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, who overthrew him with a great slaughter. In a single day, Phacee the son of Romelia slew one hundred and twenty thousand valiant men of Juda because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers. During the conflict, Zechri, a powerful man of Ephraim, slew Maasias the king’s son, Ezricam the governor of his house, and Elcana who was next to the king. The soldiers of Israel carried away two hundred thousand captive women, boys, and girls of their brethren, along with immense booty, and brought them toward Samaria.

A prophet of the Lord named Oded went out to meet the returning army and rebuked them, declaring that although the Lord in His anger had delivered Juda into their hands, the Israelites had butchered them with cruelty reaching up to heaven. Oded warned that seeking to keep the children of Juda and Jerusalem as bondmen and bondwomen was a severe sin against God, and he urged them to release the captives because a great indignation of the Lord hung over Israel. Four chief men of the sons of Ephraim—Azarias the son of Johanan, Barachias the son of Mosollamoth, Ezechias the son of Sellum, and Amasa the son of Adali—then stood up against those returning from the war and opposed the captives’ entry, insisting that adding to Israel’s offences would bring fierce divine wrath upon the nation. The soldiers left the spoils and captives before the princes and the whole assembly. The four named chiefs took custody of the captives: using the plunder, they clothed all who were naked, provided shoes, refreshed them with food and drink, anointed them because of their labour, placed the feeble upon beasts, escorted them safely to their brethren at Jericho, the city of palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.

Meanwhile, external adversaries continued to ravage Juda. Edomites invaded, slew many of Juda, and carried away great booty. The Philistines spread across the cities of the plains and the south of Juda, capturing Bethsames, Aialon, Gaderoth, Socho, Thamnan, and Gamzo with their villages, and settled within them. The Lord thus humbled Juda because of King Achaz, who had stripped it of help and despised the Lord. The Challoner annotation explains this loss of help as loss of divine assistance through Achaz's wickedness and idolatry. In response to these crises, Achaz sent to Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians asking for aid. However, Thelgathphalnasar afflicted and plundered him without resistance. Although Achaz stripped the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and the houses of the princes to present gifts to the Assyrian king, the alliance availed him nothing.

In the midst of his distress, Achaz increased his contempt against the Lord. He sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus that had struck him, reasoning that because the Syrian deities helped their kings, appeasing them with victims would secure help for himself; instead, these practices proved the ruin of him and of all Israel. Achaz took away the vessels of the house of God and broke them, shut up the doors of the temple of God, and erected altars in every corner of Jerusalem. Throughout all the cities of Juda, he built altars to burn frankincense, provoking the Lord to wrath. The rest of his acts and works from first to last were recorded in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel. Achaz slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not admitted into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. His son Ezechias reigned in his place.