2 Kings 16:10

Ahaz goes to Damascus. Finds a heathen altar, the like of which he sets up in the court of the temple. Further desecration of the temple furniture (2 Chronicles 28:22-25)

10. king Ahaz wentto Damascus Summoned no doubt by the Assyrian king to make full submission to the power which had relieved him from the attacks of Rezin. -I am thy servant" was to find expression in more than mere words.

and saw an[R.V. the] altar The noun is definite in the original, and probably the most conspicuous and grandest among the altars of Damascus is intended. We know from the story of Naaman that the house of Rimmon was the place to which the Syrian king of that day went to worship. We must think of the most splendid altar in Rimmon's finest temple as the pattern which Ahaz sent home. Either from inclination, or because policy required him to acknowledge the deities of his superior lord, he is reported by the chronicler to have said (2 Chronicles 28:23), -Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me".

sent to Urijah the priest This may be the same person who is mentioned by Isaiah 8:2 as one of the faithful witnesses whom he chose for himself. If this be so, he must have grievously fallen away ere the priest of Jehovah's temple would be agent for the manufacture of an idolatrous altar. Bp Hall says on this, -Never any prince was so foully idolatrous, as that he wanted a priest to second him. A Urijah is fit to humour an Ahaz. Greatness could never command anything which some servile wits were not ready both to applaud and justify."