Then King Ahaz commanded the priest Uriah, saying, 'Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his grain offering, with the burnt offerings of all the people of the land, and their grain offerings and their drink offerings; and dash against it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by' — Ahaz's detailed instructions to Uriah specify that the Damascene altar becomes the primary sacrificial site for all public offerings: the morning burnt offerings, evening grain offerings, royal offerings, and popular sacrifices. The instruction that the priest dash "all the blood" of offerings on the Damascene altar indicates its assumption of the bronze altar's sacrificial functions. Yet Ahaz's concluding statement—"the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by" (וּמִזְבַּח הַנְּחֹשֶׁת יִהְיֶה־לִּי לִדְרוֹשׁ, *u-mizbach ha-nechoshet yihyeh-li lirosh*)—suggests he reserves the bronze altar for divination or priestly inquiry. This complex arrangement indicates Ahaz's deliberate theological reconstruction: the primary sacrificial system is transferred to the foreign altar; the traditional altar is demoted to a consultative or divinatory function.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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