Thematic Bible: Massacre


Thematic Bible



Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them, Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his servant on a great scale. Now send for all the prophets of Baal and all his servants and all his priests, to come to me; let no one keep away: for I have a great offering to make to Baal; anyone who is not present, will be put to death. This Jehu did with deceit, his purpose being the destruction of the servants of Baal. And Jehu said, Let there be a special holy meeting for the worship of Baal. So a public statement was made. read more.
And Jehu sent out through all Israel; and all the servants of Baal came, not one kept away. And they came into the house of Baal, so that it was full from end to end. And Jehu said to him who kept the robes, Get out robes for all the servants of Baal. So he got out robes for them. And Jehu, with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into the house of Baal; and he said to the servants of Baal, Make a search with care, to see that no servant of the Lord is with you, but only servants of Baal. Then they went in to make offerings and burned offerings. Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to them, If any man whom I give into your hands gets away, the life of him who lets him go will be the price of his life. Then when the burned offering was ended, straight away Jehu said to the armed men and the captains, Go in and put them to death; let not one come out. So they put them to the sword; and, pulling the images to the earth, they went into the holy place of the house of Baal. And they took out the image of Asherah from the house of Baal, and had it burned. The altar of Baal was pulled down and the house of Baal was broken up and made an unclean place, as it is to this day. So Jehu put an end to the worship of Baal in Israel.


That day Joshua took Makkedah, and put it and its king to the sword; every soul in it he gave up to the curse without mercy: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Makkedah and came to Libnah, and made an attack on it; And again the Lord gave it and its king into the hands of Israel; and he put it and every person in it to the sword, till their destruction was complete; and he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. read more.
Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Libnah to Lachish, and took up their position against it and made an attack on it, And the Lord gave Lachish into the hands of Israel, and on the second day he took it, putting it and every person in it to the sword without mercy, as he had done to Libnah. Then Horam, king of Gezer, came up to the help of Lachish; and Joshua overcame him and his people, putting all of them to death. And Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Lachish to Eglon: and they took up their position against it and made an attack on it; And that day they took it, putting it and every person in it to the sword, as he had done to Lachish. And Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and made an attack on it; And took it, overcoming it and putting it and its king and its towns and every person in it to the sword: as he had done to Eglon, he put them all to death, and gave it up to the curse with every person in it. And Joshua and all Israel with him went on to make an attack on Debir; And he took it, with its king and all its towns: and he put them to the sword, giving every person in it to the curse; all were put to death: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir and its king. So Joshua overcame all the land, the hill-country and the South and the lowland and the mountain slopes, and all their kings; all were put to death: and every living thing he gave up to the curse, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders.


And they put every person in it to death without mercy, giving every living thing up to the curse, and burning Hazor. And all the towns of these kings, and all the kings, Joshua took, and put them to the sword: he gave them up to the curse, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had said.


Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the field and in the waste land where they went after them, and when all the people had been put to death without mercy, all Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all who were in it without mercy. On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and women, all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not take back his hand with the outstretched spear till the destruction of the people of Ai was complete.


And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy.

But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept from death:


Now there were in Samaria seventy of Ahab's sons. And Jehu sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of the town, and to the responsible men, and to those who had the care of the sons of Ahab, saying, Straight away, when you get this letter, seeing that your master's sons are with you, and that you have carriages and horses and a walled town and arms; Take the best and most upright of your master's sons, and make him king in his father's place, and put up a fight for your master's family. read more.
But they were full of fear, and said, The two kings have gone down before him: how may we keep our place? So the controller of the king's house, with the ruler of the town, and the responsible men, and those who had the care of Ahab's sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants and will do all your orders; we will not make any man king; do whatever seems best to you. Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on my side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons. Now the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the town, who had the care of them. And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and put them to death, all the seventy, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. And a man came and said to him, They have come with the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them down in two masses at the doorway of the town till the morning.


Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with child cut open.


And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them get away. So they took them, and Elijah made them go down to the stream Kishon, and put them to death there.


And they made war on Midian, as the Lord gave orders to Moses; and they put to death every male. They put the kings of Midian to death with the rest, Evi and Reken and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian: and Balaam, the son of Beor, they put to death with the sword.


Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom put to death.


He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it is to this day.


At that time we took all his towns, and gave them over to complete destruction, together with men, women, and children; we had no mercy on any:


And we put them to the curse, every town together with men, women, and children.



Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain