10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the details of its structure.
And take true witnesses to the writing, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah.
This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them.
And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.
But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men.
And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure, and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its laws and do them.
By putting their doorstep by my doorstep, and the pillar of their door by the pillar of my door, with only a wall between me and them; and they have made my holy name unclean by the disgusting things which they have done: so in my wrath I sent destruction on them.
And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them.
Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires.
For he made offerings to the gods of Damascus, who were attacking him, and said, Because the gods of the kings of Aram are giving them help, I will make offerings to them so that they may give me help. But they were the cause of his downfall, and of that of all Israel. And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God, cutting up all the vessels of the house of God, and shutting the doors of the Lord's house; and he made altars in every part of Jerusalem. And in every town of Judah he made high places where perfumes were burned to other gods, awaking the wrath of the Lord, the God of his fathers.
All this, said David, the design for all these things, has been made dear to me in writing by the hand of the Lord.
Then David gave to his son Solomon the design of the doorway of the house of God and of its houses and its store-houses, and the higher rooms and the inner rooms and the place for the mercy-seat; And the design of all he had in his heart for the outer squares of the house of the Lord, and for the rooms all round it, and for the store-houses of the house of the Lord, and for the store-houses for the holy things;
After their destruction take care that you do not go in their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 16
Commentary on 2 Kings 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
This chapter is wholly taken up with the reign of Ahaz; and we have quite enough of it, unless it were better. He had a good father, and a better son, and yet was himself one of the worst of the kings of Judah.
2Ki 16:1-4
We have here a general character of the reign of Ahaz. Few and evil were his days-few, for he died at thirty-six-evil, for we are here told,
2Ki 16:5-9
Here is,
2Ki 16:10-16
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,
2Ki 16:17-20
Here is,