Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 16:17-18

"And king Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone. And the covered way for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king`s entry without, turned he unto the house of Jehovah, because of the king of Assyria." — 2 Kings 16:17-18 (ASV)

And king Ahaz cut off. — The key to the right understanding of these verses is given in the last words of 2 Kings 16:18. Ahaz stripped the Temple of its ornamental work, not out of wanton malice, but from dire necessity. He had to provide a present for the king of Assyria. Thus, these verses are really a continuation of the first statement of 2 Kings 16:10.

They inform us how Ahaz managed not to appear empty-handed at Damascus. (So Thenius.) Prof. R. Smith says: “Ahaz, whose treasures had been exhausted by his first tribute, was soon driven by the repeated demands of his masters to strip the Temple even of its ancient bronze-work and other fixed ornaments. The incidental mention of this fact in a fragment of the history of the Temple incorporated in the Book of Kings is sufficient evidence of the straits to which the kingdom of Judah was reduced.”

Borders of the bases. — See 1 Kings 7:28. Thenius thinks Ahaz replaced them with unadorned plates, and set the laver up in a different fashion; but the text does not say so. (Compare, however, 2 Kings 25:13; 2 Kings 25:16; Jeremiah 52:17.)

The brasen oxen. — These were ultimately carried off by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 52:20).

A pavement of stones — i.e., a pedestal or foundation of stonework: ἐπὶ βάσιν λιθίνην (Septuagint).