2 Kings 23:12 - Exposition

And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz. It would seem that "the upper chamber of Ahaz" was within the temple precincts, since the pollutions spoken of, both before and after, are pollutions belonging to the temple. It may have been erected on the flat roof of one of the gates, or on the top of a store-chamber. Altars upon roofs were a new form of idolatry, apparently connected with the worship of the "host of heaven" (see Jeremiah 19:13 ; Zephaniah 1:5 ). Which the kings of Judah— i.e. Manasseh and Amen, perhaps also Ahaz— had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord (see above, 2 Kings 21:4 , 2 Kings 21:5 ). As Manasseh, on his repentance, merely "cast these altars out of the city" ( 2 Chronicles 33:15 ), it was easy for Amen to replace them. They belonged to the worship of the "host of heaven." Did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and east the dust of them into the brook Kidron (comp. verse 6, and the comment ad loc .).