King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent to the priest Uriah a model of the altar, and a pattern for making it — Ahaz's journey to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser represents further vassalage protocol: the subordinate visits the overlord. At Damascus, Ahaz observes the Damascene altar (הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, *ha-mizbe'ach*), apparently an Aramean cultic object that impresses him. Ahaz immediately orders his priest Uriah (אוּרִיָּה, *Uriyyah*) to create a model based on this foreign altar, initiating the next phase of temple desecration. The priest Uriah (possibly the father of the prophet Isaiah, or a different contemporary) becomes complicit in this cultic innovation. Ahaz's sending of "a model of the altar, and a pattern for making it" indicates detailed architectural specification—this is not spontaneous borrowing but deliberate institutional transformation.

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