2 Kings 16:12

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) The king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.—So the Targum renders. But all the other versions: “The king approached to the altar, and went up thereon.” (Comp. 1Kings 12:32-33.) It thus appears that Ahaz, like Uzziah, personally exercised the priestly function of sacrifice.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:10-16 God's altar had hitherto been kept in its place, and in use; but Ahaz put another in the room of it. The natural regard of the mind of man to some sort of religion, is not easily extinguished; but except it be regulated by the word, and by the Spirit of God, it produces absurd superstitions, or detestable idolatries. Or, at best, it quiets the sinner's conscience with unmeaning ceremonies. Infidels have often been remarkable for believing ridiculous falsehoods.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10-16. And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser—This was a visit of respect, and perhaps of gratitude. During his stay in that heathen city, Ahaz saw an altar with which he was greatly captivated. Forthwith a sketch of it was transmitted to Jerusalem, with orders to Urijah the priest to get one constructed according to the Damascus model, and let this new altar supersede the old one in the temple. Urijah, with culpable complaisance, acted according to his instructions (2Ki 16:16). The sin in this affair consisted in meddling with, and improving according to human taste and fancy, the altars of the temple, the patterns of which had been furnished by divine authority (Ex 25:40; 26:30; 27:1; 1Ch 28:19). Urijah was one of the witnesses taken by Isaiah to bear his prediction against Syria and Israel (Isa 8:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To wit, a sacrifice, and that not unto God, but unto the Syrian idols, as appears from 2 Chronicles 28:23,24, to whom that altar was appropriated. Whether he offered by himself, or by a priest, is not certain.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar,.... Looked at it, and liked it, being exactly according to the pattern he had sent:

and the king approached the altar, and offered thereon; either by a priest, or it may be in his own person, having no regard to the laws and appointments of God, and especially as his sacrifices were not offered to him, but to the gods of Damascus and Syria, 2 Chronicles 28:23.

Geneva Study Bible

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered {h} thereon.

(h) Either offerings for peace or prosperity, or thanksgiving as in Le 3:1 or else meaning the morning and evening offering, Ex 29:38, Nu 28:3 and thus he contemned the means and the altar which God had commanded by Solomon, to serve God after his own fantasy.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. and the king approached to [R.V. drew near unto] the altar] The rendering adopted by R.V. is much the most frequent in A.V. Except in this verse ‘approach’ is not used of ‘drawing near’ to an altar, but always ‘come near’ or ‘draw near’.

and offered thereon] At such an altar he might be his own priest. The LXX. does not represent these words.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. It is not necessarily implied in these words that Ahaz, like Uzziah, usurped the priestly functions, though conceivably he may have done so, and Urijah may have stood tamely by. What the writer has it in his mind to record is that the king, on his return from Damascus, at once made use of the new' altar for his private sacrifices. If he had meant to tax Ahaz with so great a sin as that which brought the curse of leprosy upon Uzziah, he would almost certainly have made his meaning clearer. 2 Kings 16:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 דּוּמשׂק is neither to be altered into דּמּשׂק nor regarded as a copyist's error for דּרמשׂק, 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 Isaiah 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.