I include the whole of the remainder of the life of Ahaz in one view, because it only leads the mind to discover the progress of his impiety until the measure of it was full. Reader! can we contemplate, without horror, the daring conduct of this man, after so gracious a message as he received from God, to go and take the copy of an idolatrous altar from among the heathen dunghill gods, of Damascus. We hardly meet with a parallel instance of wickedness among all the kings of Israel and Judah. And what a wretched, worthless, time-serving priest must have been this Urijah! Alas! As with, the people, so with the priest. As with the servant, so with his master; the land is utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled. Isaiah 24:2, etc. If the Reader will consult Isaiah's prophecy, in several places he will see how the prophet bewails the sad times of degeneracy in Ahaz's reign. Isaiah 14:24-28.
2 Kings 16:10-20
10 And king Ahaz went to Damascusc to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.
12 And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.
13 And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings,d upon the altar.
14 And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.
15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.
16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
17 And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.
18 And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.
19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.