Thematic Bible: Iconoclasm


Thematic Bible



And [as for] you, do not {make a covenant} with the inhabitants of this land; break down their altars.' But you did not listen to my voice. {Why would you do such a thing}? Verse ConceptsForbidden AlliancesAllegiancesDestruction Of Satan's WorksWhat Do You Do?

Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles. Verse ConceptsAbolitionStonesDestruction Of Satan's WorksObelisks

But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire. Verse ConceptsFalse GodsShrinesStonesDestruction Of Satan's WorksObelisksBurning Idolatrous Things

" 'You will not bow to their gods, and you will not serve them, and you will not act according to their actions, because you will utterly demolish them, and you will utterly break their stone pillars. Verse ConceptsAbolitionServanthood, And Worship Of GodStonesNot Imitating EvilDestruction Of Satan's WorksObelisksDo Not Have Other godsHow Not To Worshipstatues

you will drive out the inhabitants of the land from your presence, and you will destroy all their idols and all the images of their molten idols, and you will demolish all their high places; Verse ConceptsHigh PlacesShrinesGoldsmithsDestruction Of Satan's Works

"Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim, you must not conceal [it]. Say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is filled with terror, her idols are ashamed, her idols are filled with terror. Verse ConceptsFalse GodsBabylon DestroyedFlagsCapturing Cities

You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet [the] silver or gold [that is] on them, and [so] you take [it] for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it [is] a detestable thing to Yahweh your God. And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you will become a thing devoted to destruction like it; you must utterly detest it, and you must utterly abhor it, for it [is] [an] object devoted to destruction.

"These [are] the rules and the regulations {that you must diligently observe} in the land that Yahweh, [the] God of your ancestors, has given to you to take possession of it, [during] all the days that you [are] living on the land. You must completely demolish all [of] the places there where [they] served their gods, [that is], the nations whom you [are] about to dispossess, on the high mountains, and on the hills and under each leafy green tree. And you shall break down their altars, and you shall smash their stone pillars, and their Asherah poles you must burn with fire, and the images of their gods you shall hew down, and you shall blot out their names from that place. read more.
You shall not worship Yahweh your God like this.

And they abandoned their gods there. And David commanded, and they were burnt with fire. Verse ConceptsBurning Idolatrous ThingsAbandoning Things

They had left their idols there, so David and his men carried them away. Verse ConceptsAbandoning ThingsAbandoning Idols

He removed the foreign altars and high places, broke down the stone pillars, and cut down the Asherahs. And he commanded Judah to seek Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, and to keep the law and the commandment. And he removed the high places and the incense stands from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom had rest under him.

And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the vile idols from all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was in front of the portico of Yahweh. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those sojourning with them, from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for many had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh his God [was] with him. And they were gathered [at] Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. read more.
And they sacrificed to Yahweh on that day from the war booty they brought back: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their inmost being, but all who will not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be killed, from young to old, from men to women. And they took an oath to Yahweh with a great voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they swore with all their heart. And they sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and Yahweh gave rest to them all around. And also Maacah, the mother of Asa, the king removed her from [being] queen, because she had made a repulsive image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her repulsive image, and he crushed and burned [it] at the Wadi Kidron.

Nevertheless some good things have been found in regard to you, for you burned the Asherahs out of the land and set your heart to seek God." Verse ConceptsReformationRenewed Heart

And his heart was courageous in the ways of Yahweh. Moreover, he removed the high places and the Asherahs from Judah. Verse ConceptsDesires For HolinessHigh PlacesLoyaltyShrinesRenewed Heart

They brought out the stone pillars of the temple of Baal and burned {them}. So they broke down the stone pillars of Baal and destroyed the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine until this day. So Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.

Then the {king} commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained [to] burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it {there}; then he pulverized [it] to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people. read more.
He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of Yahweh, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah. Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the left of each gate of the city. However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread in the midst of their relatives. He defiled the Topheth which [is] in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, {to prevent} anyone causing his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire for Molech. He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which [was] in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. The altars which [were] on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron. The high places which [were] east of Jerusalem, which [were] on the south of the Mountain of Destruction which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the detestable thing of the {Ammonites}, the king defiled. He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites [with] human bones. Moreover, the altar which [was] in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, [Josiah] tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed [the] pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire. When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which [were] there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned [them] on the altar. [Thus] he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things. Then he said, "What [is] this gravestone that I [am] seeing?" The men of the city said to him, "[This is the] tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel." So Josiah said, "Let him rest and let no man move his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which [were] in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yahweh], Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who [were] there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned [to] Jerusalem.

{And} as he came near to the camp, he saw the bull calf and dancing, and {Moses became angry}, and he threw the tablets from his hand, and he broke them under the mountain. And he took the bull calf that they had made, and he burned [it] with the fire, and he crushed [it] until it became fine, and he scattered [it] on the surface of the water, and he made the {Israelites} drink.

He did right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that David his ancestor had done. He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the {Israelites} were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in Yahweh the God of Israel; there was no one like him, before or after, among all the kings of Judah. read more.
He held on to Yahweh; he did not depart from following him, and he kept his commands that Yahweh had commanded Moses.

When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal and the Asherah that [was] beside it [were] cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. {And they said to one another}, "Who did this thing?" So they searched and inquired, and they said, "Gideon son of Jehoash did this thing." And the men of the city said to Jehoash, "Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah that [was] beside it." read more.
But Jehoash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Will you rescue him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death by the morning. If he [is] a god, let him contend for himself because {his altar has been pulled down}." Thus, on that day he was called Jerub-Baal, {which means}, "Let Baal contend against him," because he had pulled down his altar.

And he removed the foreign gods and the carved image from the house of Yahweh and all the altars which he built on the mountain of the house of Yahweh and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. Verse ConceptsReformationBuilding AltarsDestruction Of Satan's Works

Then all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down, and its altars and its images they broke completely into pieces. Mattan the priest of Baal they killed in front of the altars. Then the priest put guards over the house of Yahweh. Verse ConceptsFalse GodsDestruction Of Satan's WorksKilling Priests

Then Jacob said to his household and to all who [were] with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that [are] in your midst and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us make ready and let us go up to Bethel, so that I can make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my trouble, and who has been with me on the way that I have gone." So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that [were] in their hands, and the ornamental rings that [were] in their ears. And Jacob buried them under the oak which [was] near Shechem.

And they rose up and removed the altars that [were] in Jerusalem. And they removed all the incense altars and threw [them] away in the Wadi Kidron. Verse ConceptsDestruction Of Satan's Works