Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible

FURTHER CORRUPTIONS OF THE TEMPLE WORSHIP BY AHAZ

"And he burnt his burnt-offering and his meal-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the altar. And the brazen altar which was before Jehovah, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it on the north side of his altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the 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 upon it all the blood of the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: but the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that Ahaz commanded."

All Christians should beware of the false claims of radical critics. Snaith, for example, wrote that, "There was nothing in pre-exilic times to prohibit the king from performing all the functions mentioned here. It was only the post-exilic regulations which made Ahaz's actions illegal and improper."[20] Of course, this is untrue. Saul was rejected as king of Israel for doing exactly what Ahaz is here said to have done, only on a much smaller scale. The radical fairy tale that the Pentateuch was written after the Babylonian exile is only that, a fairy-tale.

"The brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by" (2 Kings 16:16). The brazen altar, of course, was the true one; but as all of its functions were transferred to the new altar designed after Ahaz's instructions, the true altar was relegated to a secondary position, where Ahaz proposed that he would use it to "inquire by." "Thus the Babylonian system of omen-sacrifices, which the Law of Moses abominated (cf. Ezekiel 21:36) was intruded into the temple worship."[21]

"God Himself had prescribed the form of his sanctuary (Exodus 25:40; 26:30; 1 Chronicles 28:19); and therefore any altar planned by man and patterned after a heathen model was idolatrous."[22]

It is clear that all of the changes made here by Ahaz were to accommodate the wishes of Tiglath-pileser, as indicated by the words, "Because of the king of Assyria" (2 Kings 16:18).

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And he burnt his burnt offering, and his meat offering,.... Which went together according to the law of God, and was imitated by the Heathens:

and poured his drink offering; a libation of wine, as probably it was, like what they used according to the Levitical law:

and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar; as used according to the same law; for all sorts of sacrifices were offered by idolaters, as by the people of God, in imitation of them.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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.

Peace-offerings — For the Heathens; and Ahaz, in imitation of them, offered the same sorts of offerings to their false gods, which the Israelites did to the true.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Kings 16:13 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.

Ver. 13. And he burnt his burnt offering.] Uzziah for so doing was smitten with leprosy; but Ahaz of a far worse disease, an incurable hardness of heart. So was Gardiner, Bonner, Pool, Stokesley, &c.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

For the heathens, and Ahaz, in imitation of them, offered the same sorts of offerings to their false gods which the Israelites did to the true, the devil being noted to be God’s ape in his worship.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

burnt = offered up. App-43.

burnt his burnt offering. Figure of speech Polyptoton for emphasis.

meat offering = meal offering. App-48.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) And he burnt his burnt offering . . .—The verse describes the thank-offering of Ahaz for his late deliverance from deadly peril. From the present narrative it does not appear but that he offered it to Jehovah. The account in 2 Chronicles 28:23 must be understood to refer to other sacrifices instituted by Ahaz, who, like most of his contemporaries, thought the traditional worship of Jehovah not incompatible with the cultus of foreign deities. (Comp. 2 Kings 16:3-4.)

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

he burnt

Leviticus 1:1-3

of his peace-offerings

Heb. of the peace-offerings which were his.