Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 16:15
And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire [by].
15. Upon the great altar ] By this name he distinguishes his own altar. We know nothing of its dimensions but we need not refer the adjective ‘great’ to the size of the structure. The king calls it so, because he means it to be the ‘principal’ altar. The same adjective is used for the ‘eldest’ among sons, and for the ‘chief’ among priests.
For an account of the burnt offering, which was accompanied also by a meal offering and a drink offering, see Exo 29:38-42. These burnt offerings were offered, according to the original ordinance, every morning and every evening, and double as much on the Sabbath (Num 28:9-10). It would almost appear that in the time of Ahaz the Mosaic ritual was relaxed, and the burnt offering made in the morning and the meal offering in the evening. But this is not clear.
the king’s burnt sacrifice ] R.V. offering. The word is the same as in the previous clause, and in that which follows immediately.
all the blood of the sacrifice ] The change made in the previous note was most needful, because here we have a different word, and one which is always rendered ‘sacrifice’. The distinction between ‘burnt offering’ and ‘sacrifice’, of both which all the blood is commanded to be sprinkled on the new altar, is that in the former the whole animal was consumed in the fire, whereas in ‘sacrifices’, e.g. of peace offerings, only some portion of the victim was burnt, and the other parts eaten by the offerers.
and [R.V. but ] the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by] No doubt the verb here used is found in the sense of ‘to inquire’ after God and God’s will, as in Psa 27:4 ‘to inquire in His temple’, though in that verse some render ‘to consider’ ‘to look with pleasure upon’. But Ahaz was not minded to do any such thing. He was casting away Jehovah’s worship as fully and as fast as he could. It seems better therefore to render these words ‘but as regards the brasen altar it shall be for me to inquire’, i.e. I will see later on what shall be done with it. The Vulgate renders ‘ paratum erit ad voluntatem meam ’, i.e. it shall be used as I hereafter decide. So the verb is found in Pro 20:25, ‘It is a snare after vows to make inquiry’, i.e. to deliberate and consider whether they shall be paid or not. The LXX. has read the verb with different vowel points and renders it ‘for the morning’ ( ).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by – The bulk of modern commentators translate – As for the Brasen altar, it will be for me to inquire (or consider) what I shall do with it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Upon the great altar, i.e. this new altar; which was greater than Solomons, either in quantity, or in his estimation. Whatsoever is offered to the true God, either in my name, (for possibly he did not yet utterly forsake God, but worshipped idols with him,) or on the behalf of the people, shall be offered upon this new altar; which he seems to prescribe not only to gratify his own humour, but also in design to discourage, and by degrees to extinguish, the worship of the true God; for he concluded that the worshippers of God would never be willing to offer their sacrifices upon his altar. The brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by; that shall be reserved for my proper use, to inquire by, i.e. at which I may seek God, or his favour, or inquire of his will, to wit, by sacrifices joined with prayer, when I shall see fit. He saith only to seek, or to inquire; not seek the Lord, or to inquire of the Lord, as the phrase is more largely expressed elsewhere; but he would not vouchsafe to mention the name of the Lord, whom he had so grossly forsaken and despised.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying,…. Who was not to be commanded by the king in matters of worship, but to attend to the laws and institutions of God:
saying, upon the great altar; meaning the new one, which either was of a larger size than the altar of God, or was greater in the esteem of Ahaz:
burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering; the daily sacrifice, morning and evening:
and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; such as were offered up at any time on the account of the rulers of the land in particular, or of the whole congregation of Israel, see Le 4:1
and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; as it used to be sprinkled upon the altar of the Lord:
and the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by; to search, inquire, and consider what was to be done with it; for altars were never inquired by as oracles; the meaning is, that it was never to be made use of but by him, and when he pleased.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He also commanded that the daily morning and evening sacrifice, and the special offerings of the king and the people, should be presented upon the new altar, and thereby put a stop to the use of the Solomonian altar, “about which he would consider.” The Chethb is not to be altered; the pron. suff. stands before the noun, as is frequently the case in the more diffuse popular speech. The new altar is called “the great altar,” probably because it was somewhat larger than that of Solomon. : used for the burning of the sacrifices. is not merely the meat-offering offered in the evening, but the whole of the evening sacrifice, consisting of a burnt-offering and a meat-offering, as in 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:36. , the brazen altar “will be to me for deliberation,” i.e., I will reflect upon it, and then make further arrangements. On in this sense see Pro 20:25. In the opinion of Ahaz, the altar which had been built after the model of that of Damascus was not to be an idolatrous altar, but an altar of Jehovah. The reason for this arbitrary removal of the altar of Solomon, which had been sanctified by the Lord Himself at the dedication of the temple by fire from heaven, was, in all probability, chiefly that the Damascene altar pleased Ahaz better; and the innovation was a sin against Jehovah, inasmuch as God Himself had prescribed the form for His sanctuary (cf. Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30; 1Ch 28:19), so that any altar planned by man and built according to a heathen model was practically the same as an idolatrous altar. – The account of this altar is omitted from the Chronicles; but in v. 23 we have this statement instead: “Ahaz offered sacrifice to the gods of Damascus, who smote him, saying, The gods of the kings of Aram helped them; I will sacrifice to them that they may help me: and they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.” Thenius and Bertheau find in this account an alteration of our account of the copying of the Damascene altar introduced by the chronicler as favouring his design, namely, to give as glaring a description as possible of the ungodliness of Ahaz. But they are mistaken. For even if the notice in the Chronicles had really sprung from this alone, the chronicler would have been able from the standpoint of the Mosaic law to designate the offering of sacrifice upon the altar built after the model of an idolatrous Syrian altar as sacrificing to these gods. But it is a question whether the chronicler had in his mind merely the sacrifices offered upon that altar in the temple-court, and not rather sacrifices which Ahaz offered upon some bamah to the gods of Syria, when he was defeated and oppressed by the Syrians, for the purpose of procuring their assistance. As Ahaz offered his son in sacrifice to Moloch according to 2Ki 16:3, he might just as well have offered sacrifice to the gods of the Syrians.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(15) The great altari.e., as we say, the high altar, the new Syrian one. So the high priest is sometimes called the great priest (khn hggdl), Ahaz orders that the daily national sacrifices, the royal offerings, and those of private individuals, shall all be offered at the new altar.
The morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering.Not that there was no meat offering in the morning, and no burnt offering in the evening. (See Exo. 29:38-42; Num. 28:3-8.) The morning meat offering is implied in the mention of the burnt offering, because no burnt offering was offered without one (Num. 7:87; Num. 15:2-12). On the other hand, the evening meat offering was the only part of the evening sacrifice which the congregation could stay out, for the burnt offering had to burn all the night through (Lev. 6:9).
The brasen altar.The contrast seems to imply that the new altar was of a different material.
Shall be for me to enquire byi.e., for consulting God. So Rashi. Others (as Keil): I will think about what to do with it. Perhaps it is simply, It shall be for me to look at, i.e., an ornamental duplicate of the other altar. (Comp. Psa. 27:4.) Grtz suggests to draw near (i.e., to sacrifice), transposing the last two letters of the verb, which does not suit the context; and Thenius would read, to seek, after the Syriac, which has to ask (i.e., to pray), as if the old altar of sacrifice were henceforth to be an altar of prayer. (?)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Upon the great altar The new altar thus supplanted the ancient altar of Jehovah, and became the great altar, that is, the chief or principal altar, on which all the customary offerings of the temple were thenceforth to be offered as long as Ahaz ruled.
The brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by Better, with Gesenius, Keil, Furst, and Bahr, to take here, not in the sense of inquiring or searching by, as an oracle, but, to consider, to weigh in one’s mired. Ahaz ordered the priest to offer all the offerings on the new altar, but reserved the disposal of the brazen altar for further consideration.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 16:15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire [by].
Ver. 15. Upon the great altar, ] i.e., The new Damascen altar, quantitate vel dignitate maiore.
And sprinkle upon it.
And the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
great altar: i.e. the new altar.
to enquire = to consider further [what shall he done with it]. Figure of speech Ellipsis. Hebrew. bakar. Occurs seven times (2Ki 16:15. Lev 13:36; Lev 27:33. Psa 27:4. Pro 20:25. Eze 34:11, Eze 34:12).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the morning: 2Ki 3:20, Exo 29:39-41, Num 28:2-10, Dan 9:21, Dan 9:27, Dan 11:31, Dan 12:11
the king’s burnt: Lev 4:13-26, 2Sa 6:17, 2Sa 6:18, 1Ki 3:4, 1Ki 8:64, 2Ch 7:4, 2Ch 7:5, 2Ch 29:21-24, 2Ch 29:32, 2Ch 29:35, Eze 46:4-7, Eze 46:12-14
for me to inquire by: 2Ki 18:4, Gen 44:5, 2Ch 33:6, Isa 2:6, Hos 4:12
Reciprocal: Exo 29:41 – offer Jdg 18:5 – Ask counsel 2Ch 4:1 – an altar Isa 7:12 – I will not ask Eze 43:8 – setting Act 4:19 – to hearken
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 16:15. Ahaz commanded, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, &c. He made a solemn injunction, that all the public sacrifices, of what sort soever they were, whether made by himself or by the people, should be constantly offered upon his altar, which he calls the great altar, because it was much larger, it is probable, than the altar of God. The command, probably, referred principally, if not only, to sacrifices to be offered to the true God, whose service, it seems, he had not yet utterly forsaken, but occasionally worshipped idols with him. The brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by That shall be reserved for my proper use, at which I may seek God, or inquire his will, by sacrifices joined with prayer, when I shall see fit. He says only, , lebakker, to seek, or to inquire; not to seek the Lord, or to inquire of the Lord, as the phrase is more largely expressed elsewhere: for, says Poole, he would not vouchsafe to mention the name of the Lord, whom he had so grossly forsaken and despised. Thus, having thrust out the altar of God from the use for which it was instituted, which was to sanctify the gifts offered upon it, he pretends to advance it above its institution, a practice common with superstitious people. But to overdo is to under do. The altar was never designed for an oracle, but Ahaz will have it for that use. Some, indeed, put a different sense on Ahazs words, and understand him to mean, As for the brazen altar, I will consider what to do with it, and will give orders accordingly.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the {k} brasen altar shall be for me to enquire [by].
(k) Here he establishes by commandment his own wicked proceedings, and abolishes the commandment and ordinance of God.