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 inquire by.
The brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by. Urijah, with culpable complaisance, acted according to his instructions (2 Kings 16:16). The sin in this affair consisted in meddling with, and improving, according to human taste and fancy, the altars of the temple, the patterns of which had been furnished by divine authority (Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:30; Exodus 27:1; 1 Chronicles 28:19). Urijah was one of the witnesses taken by Isaiah to bear his prediction against Syria and Israel (Isaiah 8:2). But neither the king nor Urijah would have dared to commit such gross sacrilege had not a fondness for idolatry prevailed to wide extent in Jerusalem at the time when those incidents occurred (cf. Isaiah 1:1-31 and Isaiah 2:1-22.) х lªbaqeer (H1239), to look at mentally, to think upon (cf. Proverbs 20:25) - i:e., to worship at; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render it. The Septuagint has: eis to prooi, for the morning; having evidently read boqer (H1242)].