2 Kings 16:10–18

Damascus Falls to the Assyrians

¹⁰So King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria in Damascus, and he saw the altar that was in Damascus, so King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the builder’s plan of the altar and the exact model of how it had been made.^{e 11}So Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; thus Uriah the priest did before King Ahaz came from Damascus. ¹²When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar, so he went near to the altar and went up on it. ¹³Then he offered his burnt offerings and his grain offerings, he poured his libations and dashed the blood of his fellowship offerings against the altar. ¹⁴Now the bronze altar that was before Yahweh, he brought over from the front of the temple, from between his altar and the temple of Yahweh, and he placed it at the side of his altar to the north. ¹⁵Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the grain offering of the evening, the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering, the burnt offering of all of the people of the land, their offerings, their libations, and all of the blood of the burnt offerings, the blood of the sacrifices you must dash on it. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶So Uriah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded. ¹⁷Then King Ahaz cut off the side panels of the water carts and removed from upon them the basin, and the sea he took down from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base. ¹⁸The covering for the Sabbath, which they had built in the palace and in the entrance of the king to the outside, he removed from the temple of Yahweh because of the presence of the king of Assyria.