'Down' in the Bible

For thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down to make a defense against the siege ramps and against the sword,

he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were sitting there—Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.

Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

So Ebed-melech took the men under his authority and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah.

Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

The Chaldeans also burned with fire the king’s palace and the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him arose and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and put to death the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had cast all the corpses of the men whom he had struck down because of Gedaliah, it was the one that King Asa had made on account of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, that is, the men who were soldiers, the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon.

because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you.

This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah’s dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying:

Thus you are to say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.”

The nations have heard of your shame,And the earth is full of your cry of distress;For one warrior has stumbled over another,And both of them have fallen down together.

“Why have your mighty ones become prostrate?They do not stand because the Lord has thrust them down.

“Make your baggage ready for exile,O daughter dwelling in Egypt,For Memphis will become a desolation;It will even be burned down and bereft of inhabitants.

“They have cut down her forest,” declares the Lord;“Surely it will no more be found,Even though they are now more numerous than locustsAnd are without number.

“Moab has been destroyed and men have gone up to his cities;His choicest young men have also gone down to the slaughter,”Declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

“Come down from your gloryAnd sit on the parched ground,O daughter dwelling in Dibon,For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,He has ruined your strongholds.

“As for the terror of you,The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,O you who live in the clefts of the rock,Who occupy the height of the hill.Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,I will bring you down from there,” declares the Lord.

“Raise your battle cry against her on every side!She has given herself up, her pillars have fallen,Her walls have been torn down.For this is the vengeance of the Lord:Take vengeance on her;As she has done to others, so do to her.

Put all her young bulls to the sword;Let them go down to the slaughter!Woe be upon them, for their day has come,The time of their punishment.

“They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,And pierced through in their streets.”

“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the Lord,“And I will stretch out My hand against you,And roll you down from the crags,And I will make you a burnt out mountain.

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me,He has set me down like an empty vessel;He has swallowed me like a monster,He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;He has washed me away.

“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,Like rams together with male goats.

“I will punish Bel in Babylon,And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth;And the nations will no longer stream to him.Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land.

“For these things I weep;My eyes run down with water;Because far from me is a comforter,One who restores my soul.My children are desolateBecause the enemy has prevailed.”

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not sparedAll the habitations of Jacob.In His wrath He has thrown downThe strongholds of the daughter of Judah;He has brought them down to the ground;He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

The Lord has done what He purposed;He has accomplished His wordWhich He commanded from days of old.He has thrown down without sparing,And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you;He has exalted the might of your adversaries.

Their heart cried out to the Lord,“O wall of the daughter of Zion,Let your tears run down like a river day and night;Give yourself no relief,Let your eyes have no rest.

Surely my soul remembersAnd is bowed down within me.

My eyes run down with streams of waterBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

My eyes pour down unceasingly,Without stopping,

Until the Lord looks downAnd sees from heaven.

My enemies without causeHunted me down like a bird;

“As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it.

When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.

In all your dwellings, cities will become waste and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and desolate, your idols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.

And He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” Thus they went out and struck down the people in the city.

But as for those whose hearts go after their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down on their heads,” declares the Lord God.

“So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord God.

So I will tear down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; and when it falls, you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am the Lord.

and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe to the women who sew magic bands on all wrists and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature to hunt down lives! Will you hunt down the lives of My people, but preserve the lives of others for yourselves?

Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me.

I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare.

Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” declares the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.

All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”

and say,‘What was your mother?A lioness among lions!She lay down among young lions,She reared her cubs.

‘But it was plucked up in fury;It was cast down to the ground;And the east wind dried up its fruit.Its strong branch was torn offSo that it withered;The fire consumed it.

The company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.

They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock.

The blow of his battering rams he will direct against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.

With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with the sword; and your strong pillars will come down to the ground.

Also they will make a spoil of your riches and a prey of your merchandise, break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timbers and your debris into the water.

Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment and be appalled at you.

then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living.

“All who handle the oar,The sailors and all the pilots of the seaWill come down from their ships;They will stand on the land,

‘They will bring you down to the pit,And you will die the death of those who are slainIn the heart of the seas.

“A sword will come upon Egypt,And anguish will be in Ethiopia;When the slain fall in Egypt,They take away her wealth,And her foundations are torn down.

‘Thus says the Lord,“Indeed, those who support Egypt will fallAnd the pride of her power will come down;From Migdol to SyeneThey will fall within her by the sword,”Declares the Lord God.

Alien tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and left it.

so that all the trees by the waters may not be exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the clouds, nor their well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”

‘Thus says the Lord God, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused lamentations; I closed the deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it.

I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath.

They also went down with it to Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its strength lived under its shade among the nations.

“To which among the trees of Eden are you thus equal in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. So is Pharaoh and all his hordes!”’ declares the Lord God.”

“Son of man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the nether world, with those who go down to the pit;

‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised.’

The strong among the mighty ones shall speak of him and his helpers from the midst of Sheol, ‘They have gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

“Elam is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who instilled their terror in the land of the living and bore their disgrace with those who went down to the pit.

They have made a bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it, they are all uncircumcised, slain by the sword (although their terror was instilled in the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were put in the midst of the slain.

Nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war and whose swords were laid under their heads; but the punishment for their iniquity rested on their bones, though the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living.

“There also is Edom, its kings and all its princes, who for all their might are laid with those slain by the sword; they will lie with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit.

“There also are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who in spite of the terror resulting from their might, in shame went down with the slain. So they lay down uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit.

“Though I instilled a terror of him in the land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the uncircumcised along with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hordes,” declares the Lord God.

I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

Is it too slight a thing for you that you should feed in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the rest with your feet?

As for My flock, they must eat what you tread down with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet!’”

I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground.

I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand.

Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.

Then he said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah; then they go toward the sea, being made to flow into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh.

that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up.

But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.”

Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden image.

But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.

Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

‘He shouted out and spoke as follows:Chop down the tree and cut off its branches,Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit;Let the beasts flee from under itAnd the birds from its branches.

In that the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, “Chop down the tree and destroy it; yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him,”

Because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations and men of every language feared and trembled before him; whomever he wished he killed and whomever he wished he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated and whomever he wished he humbled.

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.