Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole 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

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

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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

Offered — A sacrifice, and that not to God, but to the Syrian idols, to whom that altar was appropriated.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

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.

Ver. 12. And the king approached to the altar.] Urijah suffering him so to do; whereas that zealous priest Azariah would not endure his grandfather Uzziah, a far better man, to offer sacrifice. [2 Chronicles 26:17-18]

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

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.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

12.Saw the altar — That is, the new altar which Urijah had just completed, according to the pattern sent him from Damascus, and had erected, apparently, near the entrance into the court. This new altar is called emphatically the altar in this verse and the following, and in 2 Kings 16:15, the great altar.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

And worshipped. Hebrew simply, "and the king approached to the altar, and offered on it (13) his holocaust and his meat (or flour) offering, and poured hid drink-offering, and the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the altar." (Haydock) --- He dedicated it with all sorts of sacrifices, forbidding any other to be used in the temple. But shortly after he shut up the temple entirely, 2 Paralipomenon xxviii. 24., and xxix. 3. He offered sacrifice to idols upon this altar, (Abulensis) while the priests made use of the same altar to sacrifice the true God, (ver. 15.; Menochius) unlawfully.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton (App-6) in verses: 2 Kings 16:12-15.

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. 1 Kings 12:32-33.) It thus appears that Ahaz, like Uzziah, personally exercised the priestly function of sacrifice.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

approached

1 Kings 13:1; 2 Chronicles 26:16-19; 28:23,25

offered thereon

Numbers 18:4-7