2 Kings 16:14

He also took the bronze altar that stood before the LORD from the front of the temple (between the new altar and the house of the LORD) and he put it on the north side of the new altar.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — King Ahaz repositions the bronze altar during his reign, moving it from the temple's front to the north side of a newly constructed altar. This action occurs after he establishes his own sacrificial routines and immediately before he delegates altar usage to the priest Uriah.

The words — The phrase הַמִּזְבַּח הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (ham-mizbaḥ ha-neḥōšeṯ) translates literally to "the bronze altar," while וַיַּקְרֵב (wayyaqreḇ) means "and he brought near" or "and he moved it." These terms mark the physical displacement of a specific cultic object.

The thread — The bronze altar's original placement at the tabernacle entrance appears in Exodus 40:6 and 40:29, and its standard dimensions are recorded in 2 Chronicles 4:1. Ahaz's relocation shifts the object from its prescribed Mosaic position to a secondary location.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Ahaz physically displaced a divinely appointed worship object to accommodate his own religious innovations. It requires the reader to observe how ritual rearrangement precedes and enables religious deviation.

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 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.

Cross-references

2 Chronicles 4:1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
Exodus 40:6 Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
Exodus 40:29 He placed the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, just as the LORD had commanded him.
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.
2 Chronicles 1:5 But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.
Matthew 23:35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.