Bible Strands
2 Kings 16:11
And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, and he completed it before King Ahaz returned.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the immediate aftermath of King Ahaz’s journey to Damascus, noting that Uriah the priest executed the king’s orders upon receiving the altar’s design. This event bridges Ahaz’s departure to meet Tiglath-pileser and his return to personally use the new structure.
The words — The verb וַיִּבֶן (va.yi.ven) translates literally as “and he built,” marking the physical completion of the object. The phrase כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח (ke.khol a.sher sha.lach) means “according to all that he had sent,” specifying that the construction followed Ahaz’s exact Damascus plans.
The thread — The priest Uriah reappears as a “trustworthy witness” in Isaiah 8:2, while the pattern of officials executing written royal directives mirrors the elders in 1 Kings 21:11. The seamless adoption of a foreign cultic object contrasts with the priestly resistance documented in 2 Chronicles 26:17.
Why it lands — The text states that a religious official constructed a foreign altar exactly to a king’s specifications before the king’s return. It requires the reader to acknowledge how institutional compliance can operationalize religious change without explicit divine authorization.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 21:11 So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had instructed in the letters she had written to them.
- 2 Chronicles 26:17 Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD, went in after him.
- Isaiah 8:2 And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”
- Jeremiah 23:11 “For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
- Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
- Daniel 3:7 Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
- Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
- Hosea 5:11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.
- Malachi 2:7 For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.
- Galatians 1:10 Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.