2 Kings 16:10-18

Damascus Falls

10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ¹Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to ²Urijah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship.

11 So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus.

12 When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then ³the king approached the altar and went up to it,

13 and burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

14 ⁴The bronze altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the front of the house, from between ⁵his altar and the house of the LORD, and he put it on the north side of his altar.

15 Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, "Upon the great altar burn ⁶the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But ⁷the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by."

16 So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

17 Then King Ahaz ⁸cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also ⁹took down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.

18 The covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the LORD because * of the king of Assyria.

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2 Kings 16:10-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 16

This chapter contains the reign of Ahaz only, relates his idolatry, 2Ki 16:1-4 his hiring the king of Assyria with the treasure of the temple, and his own, to assist him against the kings of Israel and Syria, who besieged him, 2Ki 16:5-9, his seeing the altar of an idol at Damascus, the fashion of which he took, and ordered one like it to be built at Jerusalem, 2Ki 16:10-16, his defacing and removing some things in the temple, 2Ki 16:17,18, and the chapter is concluded with his death and burial, 2Ki 16:19,20.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 9

1. 2 Kings 15:29
2. Isaiah 8:2
3. 2 Chronicles 26:16, 19
4. Exodus 27:1, 2; Exodus 40:6, 29; 2 Chronicles 4:1
5. 2 Kings 16:11
6. Exodus 29:39-41
7. 2 Kings 16:14
8. 1 Kin 7:27, 28, 38
9. 1 Kings 7:23, 25

Footnotes 7

[a]. Lit "likeness"
[b]. Lit "until"
[c]. Or "offered on it"
[d]. Lit "offered in smoke"
[e]. Lit "he also"
[f]. Lit "commanded him, Urijah"
[g]. Lit "offer in smoke"