King Ahaz also cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.
Here is, I. Ahaz abusing the temple, not the building itself, but some of the furniture of it. 1. He defaced the bases on which the lavers were set (Kg1 7:28, Kg1 7:29) and took down the molten sea, Kg2 16:17. These the priests used for washing; against them therefore he seems to have had a particular spite.
Commenting on 2 Kings 16:17-20
Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Some others are written in the canonical book of Chronicles, Ch2 28:1 and were, it is highly probable, in the annals of the kings of Judah, now lost. 2 Kings 16:20
HE SPOILS THE TEMPLE. (Kg2 16:17-19) cut off the borders of the bases, &c.--It is thought that he did this to use the elaborate sculpture in adorning his palace.