Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 16:10
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that [was] at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
10 18. Ahaz goes to Damascus. Finds a heathen altar, the like of which he sets up in the court of the temple. Further desecration of the temple furniture (2Ch 28:22-25)
10. king Ahaz went to Damascus ] Summoned no doubt by the Assyrian king to make full submission to the power which had relieved him from the attacks of Rezin. ‘I am thy servant’ was to find expression in more than mere words.
and saw an [R.V. the ] altar ] The noun is definite in the original, and probably the most conspicuous and grandest among the altars of Damascus is intended. We know from the story of Naaman that the house of Rimmon was the place to which the Syrian king of that day went to worship. We must think of the most splendid altar in Rimmon’s finest temple as the pattern which Ahaz sent home. Either from inclination, or because policy required him to acknowledge the deities of his superior lord, he is reported by the chronicler to have said (2Ch 28:23), ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me’.
sent to Urijah the priest ] This may be the same person who is mentioned by Isa 8:2 as one of the faithful witnesses whom he chose for himself. If this be so, he must have grievously fallen away ere the priest of Jehovah’s temple would be agent for the manufacture of an idolatrous altar. Bp Hall says on this, ‘Never any prince was so foully idolatrous, as that he wanted a priest to second him. A Urijah is fit to humour an Ahaz. Greatness could never command anything which some servile wits were not ready both to applaud and justify.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And saw an altar – Rather, The altar, i. e. an Assyrian altar, and connected with that formal recognition of the Assyrian deities which the Ninevite monarchs appear to have required of all the nations whom they received into their empire.
The fashion of the altar – Assyrian altars were not very elaborate, but they were very different from the Jewish. They were comparatively small, and scarcely suited for whole burnt-offerings. One type was square, about half the height of a man, and ornamented round the top with a sort of battlement. Another had a triangular base and a circular top consisting of a single flat stone. A third was a sort of portable stand, narrow, and about the height of a man. This last was of the kind which the kings took with them in their expeditions.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 16:10-15
And King Ahaz went to Damascus . . . and saw an altar.
The cosmopolitan in religion
This is an incident familiar to all Bible students. You know that King Ahaz, and it is saying a great deal, was about the most foolish and weak king that ever sat upon the throne of Judah. After the time of Solomon the kingdom was threatened by the neighbouring kingdom of Israel, which had made a league with the King of Syria, whose centre was in Damascus. They had already besieged Jerusalem ineffectually. It was the time when Isaiah the prophet was carrying on his ministry in the holy city. He advised this weak and foolish young man to have no fear whatever of the two powers that were leagued against him, He described them in that uncomplimentary phrase of two smoking stumps of firebrands–what you would describe as spent forces–and advised the young king to be quiet, and trust in God. But trust in God was not original or clever enough for Ahaz. He was one of the men who thought that you might trust in God when you had exhausted every other resource. So, instead of trusting in God, he proceeded to do the very opposite thing–to strip the temple of Jehovah of its vessels of gold and silver, to strip its walls of the platings of gold, and to send this gold, with some treasures from his own house, as a present to Tiglath-pileser, the King of Assyria–the Roman Empire of that day, threatening and menacing every other power–and he said: I am thy son and thy servant; come and save me out of the hands of the King of Israel and the King of Syria. And the device succeeded; the glittering gold secured the strong arm of the Assyrian king. Tiglath-pileser conquered Syria, led away the king of it captive, established some sort of a seat at Damascus; and Ahaz went up to visit him, and while there turned things over in his own mind, and, thinking that religion was very useful to a politician, he came across a heathen altar–an elaborate and aesthetic altar–and it occurred to him that it would be another original thing to enlarge the original scope of the temple at Jerusalem, and to bring something of an ornate character into its service, by erecting there an altar of the exact pattern of the thing he had seen at Damascus. Having unfortunately a creature who was supple and obedient, in Urijah the priest–the very opposite of Isaiah the prophet–having sent an exact pattern of the altar by special messenger to Jerusalem, his assiduous and time-serving priest had it all ready by the time of his return. It was put in the centre of the sanctuary, and now said King Ahaz to his supple and accommodating religious functionary, I am not going to desert the old altar, it is to be kept on the premises, it is to be moved a little to the north; the great altar is to take the central position, the altar with the heathen embellishments upon it, with heathen and corrupt associations connected with it, is to have the centre; but I am not going over to heathenism–God forbid!–I have a very tender place in my heart for the old altar, and in the day when trouble comes, and when perhaps this brilliant experiment in religion has failed, in the day when darkness falls, the old altar will do for me to inquire by. He did not know that he was mocking God when he did that.
1. Have you met this man Ahaz? I have seen him. He is a type, and the type is not extinct. He is like a man who has gone away from the Church that gave him all that he was ever worth, and he says that he has not gone away from it. The old altar is not put away, it is only in practice that he has gone over to another Church–for family reasons, and for aesthetic considerations. I think you have met the man, and know the type. The cosmopolitan in matters of religion, the man who comes to you and raves about the wonders of Buddhism; and he asks you if you have read the Vedas and the Zendavesta, and if you are acquainted with Confucian philosophy, and if you know that there is really a great deal of truth and merit in heathen religion. Now nobody would deny that this man had made some sort of a discovery, as Ahaz did, but nobody sensible has ever thought of denying that there is a certain element of truth in heathen religions. God has not left Himself without witness; He has not been doing nothing in the great heathen countries through all the ages; He has spoken here and there; and there may be enough truth in a system to hold it together for centuries. But you may be sure that the man who talks in this way has not on the spot considered the product of heathen religion, and when he talks of the picturesqueness of many heathen customs, he has forgotten the degradation and the uncleanness and the shameful superstition and the unutterable cruelty and lies that are connected with the religions that he praises. Either the Christian religion was designed and destined to supersede and supplant all others, or it was not, and we must make up our minds. Study comparative religions if you will, but the man who studies the Christian religion, and digs deeply into it, contents, will find a glory that takes to itself every scattered ray of glory that is in every other religion, and repels all that is base and degrading and unworthy. If the Christian religion is not intended to supersede and supplant all others, if the faiths of the world were sufficient by themselves to save the world, even the faith of Judah, with its doctrine of one righteous and holy God, then the Incarnation was a superfluity, and the cross and bitter passion of our Lord were altogether unnecessary, The cosmopolitan in religion does not dig deeply enough into the glory that excels, to see that it does excel all other light.
2. But I go on to speak, the next place, of this man as the type of a man who will do anything, right or wrong, in order to succeed. Why did he erect the Assyrian altar, or a pattern of it, in the temple at Jerusalem? Not because it was false, or because it was true; the man did not understand religion a bit; it was a kind of penny-in-the-slot business; them was magic in it; you did something, and something came out of it, and he knew nothing better than that. But he knew that this altar was the altar of a powerful nation, and that the men who worshipped at it were succeeding, and there is where we make the mistake to-day. We are worshipping success, right or wrong. Of course you want to succeed; it would be exceedingly foolish on my part, and useless to suggest to any man before me that he should not desire passionately the success of anything with which he is connected. There is a danger of worshipping success in the Christian Church, of sacrificing inward things for numbers and wealth in the character of the Church. Naturally, I want my business to succeed, but I want to know how the dividends are earned. That is a question that every Christian man should ask. Naturally I want my party to succeed, but the party had better journey in the wilderness for fifty years than sacrifice any of its sincerity and its views for the sake of office. I would say in all earnestness that my ambition to succeed, and yours, must in all things be strictly subordinated to our ambition and purpose to do the will of God everywhere, and when we stand upon the threshold of an enterprise we must not admit anything into it, if we know it, that will clash with the will of God, and that will not be in accordance with our conscience. What is religion? What do some people think it to be? Is it a series of ecclesiastical and ceremonial operations, which God will accept as an equivalent or a substitute for a mans heart obedience? Is it an endeavour to get the Most High over to your side, right or wrong? Is it not a feeling after God, and finding Him, and then submitting the whole life, with all its possibilities of success or failure to the absolute and undisputed authority, and will of God?
3. I think I can see a little bit of a parable in this sad history. There is a temple of God in the heart of every man here to-day which should be kept inviolate for Him, and the golden vessels in it are the convictions that God has created in your heart; and you must say, in the sight of God, I will not sacrifice one of these to ward off any impending danger, to buy over any strong thing to my side; here I stand, I can no other; where God has placed me, whatever comes. I know what it means, I have graduated in business, and I know it–how you are tempted to stretch a point here and there in the presence of new combinations, in the presence of new competition and anti-Christian customs. There is a crisis coming on, and they tell you that if you will not bribe people and drink with people, and do this, that, and the other, you will not succeed; and you say, I know it is abominable. Will you whittle away the abominableness of it until you make it fit for you to do it? Or will you say, I can fail, but I cant stifle my conscience, and I cannot stifle the voice of God in my soul, I cannot do evil that good may come. Whenever you are tempted to do it, remember the apostles words about the people who do it–it is a strong word, not a bit too strong–whose damnation is just.
4. This is a man who, like many people to-day, tries to do an impossible thing–to serve two masters–and he fails. He is going to keep in touch with the true religion, and he is going to give the central place in life to the religion that has only a grain of truth in it at best. He did not want to cut himself adrift from the old religion; he had a great respect for it, and he wanted to keep it on the premises, just as a man keeps a Bible on the premises. He is going to resort to it in time of trouble; it is as great a comfort to him as it is for him to know that there is a doctor somewhere in the vicinity if illness should come. It would be too shocking to give up religion. Yes, but you can relegate religion to the north side of the altar, and give it a subordinate place, or you think you can, and you fail to see that you are mocking it. A great many people say, I like religion all very well in its place. Where is the place of religion? Some people think the proper place for religion is in the pew, and it is to be left there with the hymn-book on Sundays, and returned to when Sunday comes back again. We do not understand the heart of religion until we understand that there is no place for religion in a mans life unless it has the first place, because the Lord Jesus Christ will not be one in a Pantheon of many deities; it must be all or nothing. Not the main altar for business and pleasure and fame, and a little comer on the north side for Jesus Christ; but the supreme altar for Him, and He must govern your pleasures and your business. Until we can say, For me to live is Christ, we have not come to the heart of the Christian life. (C. Brown.)
The altar to inquire by
I call special attention to the last words–and the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by. Ahaz directed first of all that his own offerings should be offered upon this new altar. He then commanded that the offerings of the people, the morning and evening sacrifices as well as special offerings, should be offered upon it. Nor did Ahaz stop here; for this is an illustration of the fact that when we begin to interfere with Gods plan, and to introduce into the divine economy of things our own improvements, we are only beginning a course of action which will become more daring and irreverent as time passes by.
1. Now I want you to observe how when once a man dares to interfere with Divine ordinances, there is no telling where such a course will end. The history of retrogression in this direction is a very striking one. Even Ahaz would not have dared to do all he did at once; but having once erected a heathen altar in the sanctuary of the God of Israel, the other things naturally followed. The first stop was the one which prepared the way for every other step. Ahaz had not been in sympathy with the worship of God from his earliest days. He had entered more and more into alliance with heathen powers. He had become a diplomatist in everything; even his religion had become a thing of diplomacy. The result was that the great brazen altar upon which the nation had offered its sacrifices for centuries was at length removed by him out of the way, and an altar of his own making was made to take its place. But even now, what did Ahaz say with regard to the old altar? Should it be removed right out of the temple? No, the man was diplomatic still. The brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by. Now this word 18 ambiguous, as ambiguous in the Hebrew as it is in the English.
(1) Ahaz may have meant to say, Put that brasen altar on one side for the time being; I will think about it, and see what I shall do with it; I will not yet put it outside altogether. I will consider the matter, and see what can be done. Or, what I think is far more probable:
(2) Ahaz, while he was prepared to offer all the sacrifices upon his own altar only, was not prepared to lose sight of the old altar, but intended to consult it whenever he got into difficulty. He thus practically said, Put this old altar on one side, so that I may inquire by it when I find it necessary to do so. Now that is a very striking course to take, and yet not very exceptional in one sense.
2. This conduct on the part of Ahaz in cautiously postponing the final decision what he would do with the altar he readily thrust aside, exactly illustrates what some men and women have done many a time. There are some here to-night who remember their earliest days with strange and conflicting feelings. Their earliest recollections ought to be to them exceedingly sacred. They remember the hallowing influences which surrounded them in their early homes, when simple piety reigned in that family. But possibly some of you have since then gone out into the world, and have done what Ahaz did. You have formed friendships with other men than those with whom your father would have fraternised; but then you have known more of life, as you say, and you have prospered more than your father ever did. As men of the world you laugh at the simplicities of your ancestors, and smile at the little they knew of the competitions of life, and how unequal they would be for the fight of to-day. Your father, you freely admit, was a good man. There can be no doubt about that; no one ever doubted his sincerity, his faith, for he was so childlike and simple; but, poor man, so you think, he did not know as much as you do; and then, after all, good as he was, hew as very narrow and bigoted in his views. On the contrary, you have learned, you think, to realise that there is good in everything. You favour all that because you say it is expansive, and shows broad thought and profound sympathies; and just as Ahaz never thought for a moment that he was worshipping other gods by his innovation, so you, with your broad charity and expansive views, are bringing into the religion of Jesus Christ what He never ordained, and after all think that the Spirit which inspired the apostles is going on inspiring you, but that very much more is taught you in this enlightened age than was ever taught them. Meanwhile, you have your cultured view of the Cross. You will not thrust it away as a useless thing, but you readily place it on one side. It is no longer the central fact of the Gospel. Christ died for an example; He revealed His unselfishness. Yes, the old altar must be put aside somewhere, somewhere on the north or the cold side, and you will erect your altar from Damascus where the old altar used to be. But in all this you do not want to commit yourselves finally. The thoughtful man, so you think, is the man who always delays decision. Ahaz thought so too, if we accept the first possible rendering of the words, for he practically said, The brasen altar shall be for me to think about. I will see where I will finally put it. I am not quite sure that even now I have put it in its right place. So you say, I do not think that even now the sacrifice of Christ and the story of Calvary occupy just the proper niche. They come in somewhere; but where, you think it very difficult to decide. Meanwhile, to make sure, you will thrust it aside and yet keep it within view; by and by you may see your way to have it right outside the temple.
3. Perhaps you have done something else. It has not been to you a question of opinion. You do not belong to these would-be clever and critical people, but still you are a practical man of the world. You cannot enter into the meaning of what they call higher criticism: you know nothing about it save that you have seen a flippant leader in the daily press; and you are not concerned about the discussion: you are business men, and cannot give time to all that. The Bible may be all that your dear old father thought it was, for all that you know; but then the world has its claims, you say, and you find that it will not do in the interests of your trade or your profession to have the old Cross placed too prominently, and the principles of the Cross observed too faithfully in your daily life, and so you must thrust that a little aside and have another altar that will be more respectable–one of the nondescript altars of Damascus. It was just so with Ahaz. He had to think of the King of Assyria. Suppose the King of Assyria paid him a visit: how very pained he would be to find there was no altar there like his own; or, even if there was, that there was another altar between it and the holy place, and thus precedence was given to that other altar! Thus Ahaz had to consider matters as a practical man. He was a man full of diplomatic wisdom. He knew that as long as he could keep in with the King of Assyria things would probably be right. Why, then, should he sacrifice all his prospects just for the sake of keeping that old altar in its right place? Thus, off it had to go to the northern side.
4. But you tell me you cannot be a Christian and get on. Well, what then? You reply that you must get on, that this is the highest necessity of living. Is it? If you cannot be a Christian and succeed, then let success go. Ah, but you reply that you must succeed. Very well, you follow just the track of Ahaz. You must get on, must you? To that end you must get into alliance with the world, and the spirit of the world, and ignore God and His altar. Face the fact. You go into life and come into contact with men who sacrifice principle upon the altar of gain in the profession or trade in which you are engaged. And you say, Other men do that, and I must do it in self-defence. I must build this new altar, I must burn incense, not to God always, but burn incense upon the altar of prosperity and worldly advancement. It pays others exceedingly well to do this, and it should pay me. This was precisely what Ahaz said with regard to the kings of Syria (2Ch 28:23)–Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. I know that all this description may seem to many of you to be exaggerated. Those of us who know something of the spiritual condition of men and women know that there is nothing more common than this. Think of it; look back over your conduct, and ask yourselves what you have done that is distinctly a service to the Saviour. What have you ever said or done in your life that would mark you out as a follower of Jesus Christ? How many a man thinks of coming by and by to inquire by that altar upon which he has offered no sacrifice! What is the altar upon which you offer your sacrifices? If it is the altar of worldly success; then require of it. Be true to your convictions and to your life. Do not be mean, and only turn your back upon worldly pleasure when it has turned its back upon you. Do not look to the world as long as the world can further your purposes, always retaining a thought of God as a convenience for a dark day or a troublous hour. That is the meanest and most degrading motive that can take possession of the human heart. (D. Davies.)
Using God for emergencies
There is a blunt frankness about the transaction, almost amounting to facetiousness, that interests one. The cool way in which the old heathen altar is put in the front of the temple, while the brasen altar is ordered on one side, yet not put out of sight, but reserved for special exigencies, when the Damascus altar will not do, is very striking. Some men, having determined to have the Assyrian altar in the place of Jehovahs, would have commanded its destruction as a thing whose use was past, and which it were well to put out of sight. Not so Ahaz. He did not consider its use all gone. There might come a time–very probably there would come a time–when the brasen altar would be of essential service. Jehovah had many a time, through His prophets, come to the help of His people, and had instructed them through His priests, and it were a wise and good thing to keep the altar where, when occasion might demand it, he could go and get the direction and the help that might not be obtained from the Damascus altars service. It was a wise forecast, but a very base and wicked one,–so base and wicked that such a man even as Ahaz was ought to have been ashamed of it. (W. Aikman, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Ahaz went to Damascus] He had received so much help on the defeat of Rezin, that he went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, and render him thanks.
Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar] This was some idolatrous altar, the shape and workmanship of which pleased Ahaz so well that he determined to have one like it at Jerusalem. For this he had no Divine authority, and the compliance of Urijah was both mean and sinful. That Ahaz did this for an idolatrous purpose, is evident from 2Ch 28:21-25: “For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus;-and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me. And he made high places to burn incense to other gods in every city of Judah.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria; to congratulate his victory, and acknowledge his favour and help, and to beg the continuance of it.
Saw an altar of an excellent structure, upon which the Syrians used to offer to their idols: see 2Ch 28:23.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10-16. And king Ahaz went toDamascus to meet Tiglath-pileserThis was a visit of respect,and perhaps of gratitude. During his stay in that heathen city, Ahazsaw an altar with which he was greatly captivated. Forthwith a sketchof it was transmitted to Jerusalem, with orders to Urijah the priestto get one constructed according to the Damascus model, and let thisnew altar supersede the old one in the temple. Urijah, with culpablecomplaisance, acted according to his instructions (2Ki16:16). The sin in this affair consisted in meddling with, andimproving according to human taste and fancy, the altars of thetemple, the patterns of which had been furnished by divine authority(Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30;Exo 27:1; 1Ch 28:19).Urijah was one of the witnesses taken by Isaiah to bear hisprediction against Syria and Israel (Isa8:2).
2Ki16:17-19. HE SPOILSTHE TEMPLE.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria,…. When he heard he was come thither, and had taken it, to congratulate him on the victory, and to give him thanks for his assistance; which place from Jerusalem was one hundred and sixty miles, according to Bunting q
and saw an altar that was at Damascus; where, in all probability, he attended at the sacrifice on it along with the king of Assyria:
and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof; not only the size and form of it, but all the decorations and figures on it, with which it was wrought. This Urijah was very probably the high priest, for it can scarcely be thought that Ahaz would write to any other, or that any other priest would or could have complied with his request; and he seems to be the same Isaiah took to be a witness in a certain affair, though he now degenerated from the character he gives of him, Isa 8:2.
q Travels, &c. p. 185.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ahaz paid Tiglath-pileser a visit in Damascus, “to present to him his thanks and congratulations, and possibly also to prevent a visit from Tiglath-pileser to himself, which would not have been very welcome” (Thenius). The form is neither to be altered into nor regarded as a copyist’s error for , as we have several words in this chapter that are formed with dull Syriac u-sound. The visit of Ahaz to Damascus is simply mentioned on account of what follows, namely, that Ahaz saw an altar there, which pleased him so much that he sent a picture and model of it “according to all the workmanship thereof,” i.e., its style of architecture, to Urijah the priest (see Isa 8:2), and had an altar made like it for the temple, upon which, on his return to Jerusalem, he ordered all the burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and drink-offerings to be presented. The allusion here is to the offerings which he commanded to be presented for his prosperous return to Jerusalem.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. 11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. 12 And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. 13 And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. 14 And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar. 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. 16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
Though Ahaz had himself sacrificed in high places, on hills, and under every green tree (v. 4), yet God’s altar had hitherto continued in its place and in use, and the king’s burnt-offering and his meat-offering (v. 15) had been offered upon it by the priests that attended it; but here we have it taken away by wicked Ahaz, and another altar, an idolatrous one, put in the room of it–a bolder stroke than the worst of the kings had yet given to religion. We have here,
I. The model of this new altar, taken from one at Damascus, by the king himself, v. 10. The king of Assyria having taken Damascus, thither Ahaz went, to congratulate him on his success, to return him thanks for the kindness he had done him by this expedition, and, as his servant and son, to receive his commands. Had he been faithful to his God, he would not have needed to crouch thus meanly to a foreign power. At Damascus, either while viewing the rarities of the place, or rather while joining with them in their devotions (for, when he was there, he thought it no harm to do as they did), he saw an altar that pleased his fancy extremely, not such a plain old-fashioned one as that which he had been trained up in attendance upon at Jerusalem, but curiously carved, it is likely, and adorned with image-work; there were many pretty things about it which he thought significant, surprising, very charming, and calculated to excite his devotion. Solomon had but a dull fancy, he thought, compared with the ingenious artist that made this altar. Nothing will serve him but he must have an altar just like this: a pattern of it must be taken immediately; he cannot stay till he returns himself, but sends it before him in all haste, with orders to Urijah the priest to get one made exactly according to this model and have it ready against he came home. The pattern God showed to Moses in the mount or to David by the Spirit was not comparable to this pattern sent from Damascus. The hearts of idolaters walked after their eyes, which are therefore said to go a whoring after their idols; but the true worshippers worship the true God by faith.
II. The making of it by Urijah the priests, v. 11. This Urijah, it is likely, was the chief priest who at this time presided in the temple-service. To him Ahaz sent an intimation of his mind (for we read not of any express orders he gave him), to get an altar made by this pattern. And, without any dispute or objection, he put it in hand immediately, being perhaps as fond of it as the king was, at least being very willing to humour the king and desirous to curry favour with him. Perhaps he might have this excuse for gratifying the king herein, that, by this means, he might keep him to the temple at Jerusalem and prevent his totally deserting it for the high places and the groves. “Let us oblige him in this,” thinks Urijah, “and then he will bring all his sacrifices to us; for by this craft we get our living.” But, whatever pretence he had, it was a most base wicked thing for him that was a priest, a chief priest, to make this altar, in compliance with an idolatrous prince, for hereby, 1. He prostituted his authority and profaned the crown of his priesthood, making himself a servant to the lusts of men. There is not a greater disgrace to the ministry than obsequiousness to such wicked commands as this was. 2. He betrayed his trust. As priest, he was bound to maintain and defend God’s institutions, and to oppose and witness against all innovations; and, for him to assist and serve the king in setting up an altar to confront the altar which by divine appointment he was consecrated to minister at, was such a piece of treachery and perfidiousness as may justly render him infamous to all posterity. Had he only connived at the doing of it,–had he been frightened into it by menaces,–had he endeavoured to dissuade the king from it, or but delayed the doing of it till he came home, that he might first talk with him about it,–it would not have been so bad; but so willingly to walk after his commandment, as if he were glad of the opportunity to oblige him, was such an affront to the God he served as was utterly inexcusable.
III. The dedicating of it. Urijah, perceiving that the king’s heart was much upon it, took care to have it ready against he came down, and set it near the brazen altar, but somewhat lower and further from the door of the temple. The king was exceedingly pleased with it, approached it with all possible veneration, and offered thereon his burnt-offering, c., 2Ki 16:122Ki 16:13. His sacrifices were not offered to the God of Israel, but to the gods of Damascus (as we find 2 Chron. xxviii. 23), and, when he borrowed the Syrians’ altar, no marvel that he borrowed their gods. Naaman, the Syrian, embraced the God of Israel when he got earth from the land of Israel to make an altar of.
IV. The removal of God’s altar, to make room for it. Urijah was so modest that he put this altar at the lower end of the court, and left God’s altar in its place, between this and the house of the Lord, v. 14. But that would not satisfy Ahaz; he removed God’s altar to an obscure corner in the north side of the court, and put his own before the sanctuary, in the place of it. He thinks his new altar is much more stately, and much more sightly, and disgraces that; and therefore “let that be laid aside as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.” His superstitious invention, at first, jostled with God’s sacred institution, but at length jostled it out. Note, Those will soon come to make nothing of God that will not be content to make him their all. Ahaz durst not (perhaps for fear of the people) quite demolish the brazen altar and knock it to pieces; but, while he ordered all the sacrifices to be offered upon this new altar (v. 15), The brazen altar (says he) shall be for me to enquire by. Having thrust it out 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, which it is common for superstitious people to do. The altar was never designed for an oracle, yet Ahaz will have it for that use. The Romish church seemingly magnifies Christ’s sacraments, yet wretchedly corrupts them. But some give another sense of Ahaz’s purpose: “As for the brazen altar, I will consider what to do with it, and give order about it.” The Jews say that, afterwards, of the brass of it he made that famous dial which was called the dial of Ahaz, ch. xx. 11. The base compliance of the poor-spirited priest with the presumptuous usurpations of an ill-spirited king is again taken notice of (v. 16): Urijah the priest did according to all that king Ahaz commanded. Miserable is the case of great men when those that should reprove them for their sins strengthen and serve them in their sins.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(10) Ahaz went to Damascus, to meet Tiglath-pileser.The great king appears to have held his court there after the capture of the city, and to have summoned the vassal princes of Palestine thither to do him homage in person before his departure. (See the Note on 2Ki. 16:8.)
And saw an altar.Rather, and he saw the altar, namely, that of the principal Temple. Upon the account which follows Prof. Robertson Smith well remarks that the frivolous character of Ahaz was so-little capable of appreciating the dangers involved in his new obligations, that he returned to Jerusalem with his head full of the artistic and religious curiosities he had seen on his journey. In a national crisis of the first magnitude he found no more pressing concern than the erection of a new altar in the Temple on a pattern brought from Damascus. The sundial of Ahaz (2Ki. 20:11), and an erection on the roof of the Temple, with altars apparently designed for the worship of the host of heaven (2Ki. 23:12), were works equally characteristic of the trifling and superstitious virtuoso, who imagined that the introduction of a few foreign novelties gave lustre to a reign which had fooled away the independence of Judah, and sought a momentary deliverance by accepting a service the burden of which was fast becoming intolerable (Proph. of Israel, p. 251).
Urijah the priesti.e., the high priest, who appears to be identical with the credible witness of Isa. 8:2. His high official position would secure Urijahs credit as a witness.
Fashion . . . pattern . . . workmanship.These terms indicate that the kings interest in the matter was artistic rather than religious.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Went to Damascus After its capture.
To meet Tiglath-pileser To pay him a visit of homage and submission.
Saw an altar Before going to Damascus, and before the fall of the Syrian kingdom, and while he was hard pressed by the forces of Rezin, “he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me.” 2Ch 28:23. Now, however, he proposes to worship the more triumphant gods of Assyria, whose altar, after the victory of Tiglath, had been set up at Damascus, “It has been generally supposed,” says Rawlinson, ( Historical Evidences, p. 117,) “that this altar was Syrian; and its establishment has been connected with the passage in Chronicles, where Ahaz is said to have ‘sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which smote him;’ but few things can be more improbable than the adoption of the gods of a foreign nation at the moment when they had been proved to be powerless. The strange altar of Ahaz was in all probability not Syrian, but Assyrian; and its erection was in accordance with an Assyrian custom, of which the inscriptions afford abundant evidence the custom of requiring from the subject nations some formal acknowledgment of the gods and worship of the sovereign country.” It would seem that about this time the astral worship of Assyria was introduced into the kingdoms both of Judah and Israel. See on 2Ki 17:16.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ahaz Profanes the Temple
v. 10. And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, v. 11. And Urijah, the priest, v. 12. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar. And the king approached to the altar and offered thereon, v. 13. And he burned his burnt offering and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings upon the altar, v. 14. And he brought also the brazen altar, which was before the Lord, v. 15. And King Ahaz commanded Urijah, the priest, saying, Upon the great altar, v. 16. Thus did Urijah, the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded; v. 17. And King Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, v. 18. And the covert for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, v. 19. Now, the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? v. 20. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
I include the whole of the remainder of the life of Ahaz in one view, because it only leads the mind to discover the progress of his impiety until the measure of it was full. Reader! can we contemplate, without horror, the daring conduct of this man, after so gracious a message as he received from God, to go and take the copy of an idolatrous altar from among the heathen dunghill gods, of Damascus. We hardly meet with a parallel instance of wickedness among all the kings of Israel and Judah. And what a wretched, worthless, time-serving priest must have been this Urijah! Alas! As with, the people, so with the priest. As with the servant, so with his master; the land is utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled. Isa 24:2 , etc. If the Reader will consult Isaiah’s prophecy, in several places he will see how the prophet bewails the sad times of degeneracy in Ahaz’s reign. Isa 14:24-28 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 16:10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that [was] at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
Ver. 10. To meet Tiglathpileser. ] As well to congratulate his victory, as further to ingratiate; but God crossed his expectation, 2Ch 28:18 ; 2Ch 28:20-21 ; 2Ch 28:23 because he trusted in the arm of flesh, and hoped for help from the Syrian gods, who yet could not help their own proper servant, whom he worshipped to curry favour, likely, with Tiglathpileser.
And king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ahaz. Called Jehoahaz in Tiglath-pileser’s great triumphal inscriptions. The first syllable of his name dropped in Scripture, as he was unworthy of it.
to meet: and do him honour. Hence the solemn warnings of Isa 8:13, Isa 8:14, Isa 8:19.
fashion = likeness, or sketch.
pattern, or model.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
High-handed Idolatry
2Ki 16:10-20
The calling in of the king of Assyria was fraught with disastrous consequences. He distressed him and strengthened him not. Well may the Apostle warn us not to be yoked with unbelievers. Such alliances always result in the undoing of Gods children. We cannot serve two masters. Thus in the hour of distress, notwithstanding the increasing and noble remonstrances of Isaiah, this same king Ahaz trespassed yet more against Jehovah.
It is remarkable, as showing the folly of the human heart, that in the lowest hour of his degradation before his conqueror Ahaz imitated the altar which he saw at Damascus. For this, the ancient brazen altar in Jehovahs Temple was displaced; and upon it in the sacred fane sacrifices were offered to the gods of the heathen. Alas, there is too much of this in the present day! Men are going back from the simplicity and spirituality of Christ to exploded philosophies and systems, which have failed in the past to satisfy soul hunger. Let us beware of the vacuum of the soul into which such evil things intrude. It is only as we are filled by the indwelling Spirit that we are immune against these temptations.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
saw an altar: Deu 12:30, 2Ch 28:23-25, Jer 10:2, Eze 23:16, Eze 23:17, Rom 12:2, 1Pe 1:18
the pattern: Exo 24:4, Exo 39:43, 1Ch 28:11, 1Ch 28:12, 1Ch 28:19, Psa 106:39, Eze 43:8, Eze 43:11, Mat 15:6, Mat 15:9
Reciprocal: Jos 22:28 – Behold 2Ki 16:14 – the altar 2Ki 17:8 – walked 2Ki 21:4 – he built 2Ch 36:14 – all the chief Isa 8:2 – Uriah Eze 6:9 – their eyes Eze 11:12 – but Eze 16:28 – General Eze 44:12 – they ministered Mic 1:5 – they Mar 7:9 – Full
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 16:10. And King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser To congratulate his victory, acknowledge his favour and help, and to beg the continuance of it. And saw an altar that was at Damascus Of an excellent structure, as he supposed, upon which the Syrians used to offer to their idols, 2Ch 28:23. Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar That a pattern of it might be taken immediately. He could not stay till he should return to Jerusalem himself, but sent it before him, in all haste, with orders to Urijah, to get one made exactly according to this model, and have it ready against he came home. The pattern God showed to Moses in the mount, or to David by the Spirit, was not comparable to this pattern sent from Damascus!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ahaz’s apostasy 16:10-18
As Ahab had imported Baal worship from Phoenicia, so Ahaz imported a foreign altar from Damascus (cf. Amaziah of Judah’s Edomite idols, 2Ch 25:14; 2Ch 25:20). As Judah’s king-priest, he led the nation in worshipping at an altar different from what Yahweh had specified (Exo 27:1-8). Furthermore, he removed the altar God had established from the place God had said it should occupy in the temple courtyard (Exo 40:6; Exo 40:29).
"Readers could hardly miss the similarities between Jeroboam, the father of institutionalized idolatry in Israel, and Ahaz, the Judahite king who makes polytheism acceptable nationwide." [Note: Ibid., p. 337.]
Ahaz did not completely discard the worship God had prescribed, but he changed it according to his liking, thus claiming God’s authority (2Ki 16:15). The high priest unfortunately cooperated with the king. Ahaz likewise changed the other temple furnishings to please the Assyrian king (2Ki 16:18). [Note: For a more favorable evaluation of Ahaz’s actions, see Richard Nelson, "The Altar of Ahaz: A Revisionist View," Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986):267-76.]