2 Kings 16:15 - Exposition

And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying. Here the king, no doubt, stepped out of the sphere of his duties, not to usurp exactly the priestly office, but to give directions in matters which belonged, not to the regale , but to the pontificale . Urijah ought to have refused obedience. Upon the great altar. Certainly not so called because of its size (Keil), for it was probably much smaller than the old altar, but because of its position (see the comment on 2 Kings 16:14 ). Burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering — i.e. offer the daily sacrifice both morning and evening— and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering— i.e. the customary royal sacrifices (see 1 Kings 8:62 )— with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings— i.e; all the private offerings of the people for themselves— and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice (comp. Exodus 29:16 , Exodus 29:20 ; Le Exodus 1:5 , Exodus 1:11 ; Exodus 3:2 , Exodus 3:8 , Exodus 3:13 ; Exodus 7:2 ; Exodus 17:6 ; Numbers 18:17 , etc.) and the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by ; rather, and as for the brazen altar , it will be for me to inquire concerning it ; i.e. I shall hereafter determine what use, if any, it shall be put to. As, by the king's directions, all the regular and all the occasional sacrifices were to be offered upon his new altar, the other would practically be superfluous. It would have been only logical to remove it, or break it up; but this the king was probably afraid of doing. He therefore said that he would take time to consider what he should do.