16:12 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.
16:12 Offered - A sacrifice, and that not to God, but to the Syrian idols, to whom that altar was appropriated.
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.
