Thematic Bible: Iconoclasm


Thematic Bible



But, ye, must not solemnise a covenant with the inhabitants of this land, Their altars, must ye tear down, - But ye have not hearkened unto my voice, what is this ye have done?

For their altars, shall ye smash, And their pillars, shall ye shiver, - And their sacred-stems, shall ye fell.

Verily, thus, shall ye do unto them: Their altars, shall ye tear down, And their pillars, shall ye break in pieces, - And their sacred stems, shall ye hew down, And their carved images, a shall ye burn up in the fire.

Thou shalt not bow thyself down to their gods neither shalt thou be led to serve them, neither shalt thou do according to their works, - but thou shalt, verily overthrow, them, and, completely break in pieces, their pillars.

then shall ye dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and shall destroy all their figured stones, - all their molten images, also shall ye destroy, and all their high places, shall ye lay waste.

Tell ye among the nations And let it be heard And lift ye up a standard, Let it be heard do not conceal: Say ye - Captured is Babylon, Confounded is Bel, Broken in pieces is Merodach, Confounded are her images, Broken down her manufactured gods;

The carved images of their gods, shalt thou consume with fire, - thou shalt not covet the silver and gold upon them to take unto thee, lest thou be ensnared thereby; for the abomination of Yahweh thy God, it is; and thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house, and so become devoted to destruction, like it, thou shalt, abhor, it, and thou shalt, loathe it, because a thing devoted to destruction, it is.

These are the statutes and the regulations which ye must observe to do, in the land which Yahweh the God of thy fathers hath given unto thee, to possess it, - all the days that ye are living upon the sell: Ye must utterly destroy, all the places where the nations whom ye are dispossessing have served their gods, - Upon the high mountains And upon the hills, And under every green tree; And ye must tear down their altars And break in pieces their pillars, And, their sacred stems, must ye consume with fire, And the carved images of their gods, must ye fell to the ground, - And destroy their name out of that place. read more.
Ye must not do thus unto Yahweh your God;


And they left their gods there, - and David gave the word, and they were burned up in fire.

And they left their images there, - and David and his men took them away.


and took away the foreign altars, and the high places, - and brake in pieces the pillars, and cut in twain the Sacred Stems; and bade Judah seek Yahweh, God of their fathers,-and execute the law, and the commandment; and removed from all the cities of Judah, the high places, and the sun-images, - and the kingdom became quiet before him.

And, when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he strengthened himself, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had captured out of the hill country of Ephraim, - and renewed the altar of Yahweh, that was before the porch of Yahweh. And he gathered together all Judah and Benjamin, and the sojourners with them, out of Ephraim and out of Manasseh, and out of Simeon, - for they fell unto him out of Israel, in great numbers, because they saw that, Yahweh his God, was with him. So they gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem, in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. read more.
And they sacrificed unto Yahweh, on that day, out of the spoil they had brought in, - oxen, seven hundred, and sheep, seven thousand. And they entered into a covenant, to seek Yahweh, God of their fathers, - with all their heart, and with all their soul; and, whosoever would not seek unto Yahweh God of Israel, should be put to death, - whether small or great, whether man or woman. So they bound themselves by oath unto Yahweh, with a loud voice, and with shouting, - and with trumpets and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for, with all their heart, had they sworn, and, with all their good will, had they sought him, and he was found of them, - and Yahweh gave them rest round about. Moreover also, as touching Maacah mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made, unto the Sacred Stem, a monstrous thing, - so Asa cut down her monstrous thing, and reduced it to dust, and burnt it up, in the Kidron ravine.


howbeit, good things, are found with thee,-for that thou hast consumed the Sacred Stems out of the land, and hast fixed thy heart to seek God.

And his heart was encouraged, in the ways of Yahweh, - and he, yet further, took away the high places and the Sacred Stems, out of Judah.


and brought forth the idolatrous pillars that were in the house of Baal, and then burned it; and they brake down the pillars of Baal, - and brake down the house of Baal, and appointed it for a sewer-house - until this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.


Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the entrance-hall, to bring forth, out of the temple of Yahweh, all the vessels that had been made for Baal and for the Sacred Stem, and for all the army of the heavens, - and he burned them up outside Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel; and he put down the idol-priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed, so that incense might be burned in the high places, in the cities of Judah, and round about Jerusalem, - them also that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the army of the heavens; and he brought forth the Sacred Stem out of the house of Yahweh, outside Jerusalem, into the Kidron ravine, and burned it in the Kidron ravine, and crushed it to powder, - and cast the powder upon the graves of the sons of the people; read more.
and he brake down the houses of the male devotees, which were in the house of Yahweh, - where the women did weave houses to the Sacred Stem; and be brought in all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where, the priests, had burned incense, from Geba unto Beer-sheba, - and brake down the high places of the gates, that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on one's left hand, in the gate of the city; howbeit, the priests of the high places came not up unto the altar of Yahweh, in Jerusalem, save only that they did eat unleavened bread in the midst of their brethren; and he defiled Topheth, which was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, - so that no man might cause his son or his daughter to pass through the fire unto Molech; and he did away with the horses, which the kings of Judah had devoted to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, near the chamber of Nathan-melech the courtier, which was in the suburbs, also, the chariots of the sun, burned he with fire; and, the altars which were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, also the altars which Manasseh had made, in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, did the king break down, - and hurried away from thence, and cast out the powder of them into the Kidron ravine; and, the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of destruction, which Solomon king of Israel had built unto Ashtoreth - the abomination of the Zidonians, and unto Chemosh - the abomination of the Moabites, and unto Milcom - the disgusting thing of the sons of Ammon, did the king defile; and he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Sacred Stems, - and filled their place with human bones: moreover also, the altar that was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam son of Nebat made, wherewith he caused, Israel, to sin, - even that altar, and the high place, brake he down, - and burned the high place, crushing it to powder, and burned a Sacred Stem. And, when Josiah turned, and saw the graves which were there, in the mount, he sent and took the bones out of the graves, and burned upon the altar, and defiled it, - according to the word of Yahweh, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. Then said he - What is yonder erection, which I do see? And the men of the city said unto him - The grave of the man of God, who came in out of Judah, and proclaimed these things, which thou hast done, concerning the altar of Bethel. And he said - Let him rest, let, no man, disturb his bones. So they let his bones rest, with the bones of the prophet who came in out of Samaria. Moreover also, all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made, so as to provoke Yahweh to anger, did Josiah remove, - and he did to them according to all the doings which he had done in Bethel; and he sacrificed all the priests of the high places, who were there, by the altars, and burned human bones thereupon, - and returned to Jerusalem.


And it came to pass when he drew near unto the camp, and saw the calf, and the dancings, that the anger of Moses kindled, and he cast out of his hands the tables, and brake them in pieces at the foot of the mountain. Then took he the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it till it became powder, and strewed it on the face of the waters, and made the sons of Israel drink.


And he did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, - according to all that, David his father, did. He, removed the high places, and brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Sacred Stem, - and beat in pieces the serpent of bronze that, Moses, had made, because, until those days, had the sons of Israel been burning incense thereunto, so he called it Nehushtan. In Yahweh, God of Israel, did he trust, - so that, after him, was none like him, among all the kings of Judah, nor that were before him; read more.
and he did cleave unto Yahweh, he turned not away from following him, - but kept his commandments, which, Yahweh, commanded, Moses.


And the men of the city rose up early in the morning, and lo! the altar of Baal, had been overthrown, and, the sacred stem that was by it, had been cut down, and the second bullock had been caused to ascend upon the altar that had been built. So they said, one to another, Who hath done this thing? And they inquired, and made search, and it was said, Gideon son of Joash, hath done this thing. So the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring forth thy son, that he may die, - because he hath overthrown the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the sacred stem that was by it. read more.
And Joash said unto all who stood by him - Will, ye, plead for Baal, or will, ye, save him? Whoso pleadeth for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning, - if, a god, he be let him plead for himself, because one hath overthrown his altar. So he was called on that day, Jerubbaal, saying, - Let Baal, plead against him. Because he had overthrown his altar.


And he removed the gods of the foreigner and the image, out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, - and he cast them forth outside the city.


And all the people of the land entered the house of Baal, and brake it down, his altars and his images, brake they in pieces, utterly, and, Mattan the priest of Baal, they slew before the altars, - and the priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh.


And Jacob said unto his house, and unto all who were with him, - Put away the gods of the alien which are in your midst, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el, - that I may make there an altar to the GOD who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went. So they gave unto Jacob all the gods of the alien which were in their hand, and the earrings which were in their ears, - and Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shechem.


Then rose they up, and removed the altars, which were in Jerusalem,-and, all the censers, removed they, and cast them into the Kidron ravine.