Thematic Bible
Thematic Bible
Altar » Used in idolatrous worship
Later that very night, the LORD told Gideon, "Take the bull that belongs to your father, along with a second bull that's seven years old. Then tear down the altar to Baal that your father owns, cut down the Asherah that's beside it,
Jeroboam invented a festival for the fifteenth day of the eighth month similar to the festival that takes place in Judah. He approached the altar that he had set up in Bethel and sacrificed to the calves that he had made, having stationed in Bethel the priests that he had appointed.
So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. "Baal! Answer us!" they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.
King Ahaz traveled to Damascus and met with King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, where he observed the altar at Damascus. So King Ahaz sent a set of construction patterns of this altar to Uriah the priest.
The king demolished the rooftop altars on top of Ahaz's upper chamber that the kings of Judah had erected, as well as the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the LORD's Temple. He pulverized them where they stood and cast their dust into the Kidron Brook.
Furthermore, he even broke down the altar that had been at Bethel as well as the high place constructed by Nebat's son Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin. He demolished its stones, pulverized them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
a people who continually provoke me to my face; they keep sacrificing in gardens and waving their hands over stone altars;
"The more altars Ephraim builds for sin, the more altars there will be for sin.
For as I was walking around and looking closely at the objects you worship, I even found an altar with this written on it: "To an unknown god.' So I am telling you about the unknown object you worship.
Altars » Idolatrous altars
So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. "Baal! Answer us!" they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.
By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
a people who continually provoke me to my face; they keep sacrificing in gardens and waving their hands over stone altars;
"The more altars Ephraim builds for sin, the more altars there will be for sin.
For as I was walking around and looking closely at the objects you worship, I even found an altar with this written on it: "To an unknown god.' So I am telling you about the unknown object you worship.
Groves » Forbidden to be established
By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
"You are not to set up a sacred pole beside the altar of the LORD your God that you will build.
They'll be ashamed of the oak trees that you desired; and you'll blush because of the gardens that you have chosen.
They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars.
Idolatry » Prophecies relating to
By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
Look! Here come riders, each man with a pair of horses!" They're shouting out the answer: "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and they have shattered all the images of her gods on the ground!
I'll punish Bel in Babylon, and I'll make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth. The nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon will fall.
At that time, mankind will throw their silver and gold idols that their fingers have made as objects of worship to the moles and to the bats.
A message about Egypt: "Watch out! The LORD rides on a swift cloud, and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.
Their hearts are divided; from now on they are to be found guilty. God will tear down their altars, he will destroy their stone idols.
They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.
"At that time," declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "I will eliminate the names of the idols from the land, and they will not be remembered anymore. I will also force both prophet and demon to leave the land.
I'll pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I'll execute judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
while they were burying their firstborn, whom the LORD had killed among them. The LORD also executed justice against their gods.
The LORD will incite them to terror, because he will cause all the gods of the earth to waste away. They will worship him, every person in his own home, including even the coastlands of the nations."
At that time, men will look upon their Maker, and their eyes will honor the Holy One of Israel. They will not look upon the altars, the products that their own fingers have made, and they will have no regard for Asherah poles or incense altars.
For at that time, everyone will throw away their idols of silver and their idols of gold that your hands have sinfully made for yourselves.
Tell this to them: "The gods who didn't make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from these heavens."
Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.
"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
"Son of Man," the Lord GOD told me, "This is where my throne is, where I place the soles of my feet, and where I will live among the Israelis forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name neither they nor their kings by their unfaithfulness, by the lifeless idols of their kings on their funeral mounds, by their setting up their threshold too close to my threshold and their door post too close to my door post, with a wall between me and them. After all, they have defiled my holy name by the loathsome things that they did, so I devoured them in my anger. But now let them send their unfaithfulness that is, the lifeless idols of their kings far away from me, and I will live among them forever."
I will separate you from your carved images and sacred pillars, and you no longer will worship what you've made with your hands.
false Worship » Brazen serpent places devoted to idolatry » Idolatrous altars
So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. "Baal! Answer us!" they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.
By this, then, Jacob's guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
a people who continually provoke me to my face; they keep sacrificing in gardens and waving their hands over stone altars;
"The more altars Ephraim builds for sin, the more altars there will be for sin.
For as I was walking around and looking closely at the objects you worship, I even found an altar with this written on it: "To an unknown god.' So I am telling you about the unknown object you worship.