17 Bible Verses about Temples, Heathen

And Samson called to Yahweh and said, "My Lord Yahweh, remember me! Please give me strength this one time, O God, so that I can repay [with] one act of revenge to [the] Philistines for my eyes." And Samson reached out and held two of the middle pillars on which the house [was] resting, and he leaned on them, one on his right and one on his left. And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." And he pushed with [all his] strength, and the house fell on the rulers and all of the people who [were] with him. And the dead whom he killed in his death were more than those he killed in his life.

Then [the] Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the temple of Dagon and placed it beside Dagon. When the Ashdodites got up early the next morning, {there was} Dagon fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh! So they took Dagon and returned him to his place. When they got up early in the morning the next day, {there was} Dagon fallen [again] with his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh! The head of Dagon and the palms of his two hands were cut off, lying at the threshold; only [the body] of Dagon was left.

{And then} the next day, [the] Philistines came to strip the dead and they found Saul and his three sons lying [dead] on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent [messengers] around in the land of [the] Philistines to proclaim [victory in] the temples of their idols and [to] the people. And they put his armor [in] the temple of the Ashtoreth, and they fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

As far as this matter, may Yahweh pardon your servant when my master goes [into] the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he [is] leaning himself on my arm, that I also bow down [in] the house of Rimmon: when I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh please pardon your servant in this matter."

Yahweh has commanded concerning you: "Your name will no longer be sown. I will cut off {the idols and images} from the {temple} of your gods; {I will send you to the grave} because you are worthless."

Then Jeroboam {said to himself}, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and {return to him}." And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."read more.
He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan.

And he built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria.

Jehu sent [word] through all of Israel, and all of the servants of Baal came; there did not remain a man who did not come. They came to the house of Baal so that the house of Baal was filled from {wall to wall}.

Then all the people went to the house of Baal and broke it down. And they smashed his altars and his images, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.

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.

So King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria [in] Damascus, and he saw the altar which [was] in Damascus, so King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the builder's plan of the altar and the {exact model of how it had been made}. So Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; thus Uriah the priest did before King Ahaz came from Damascus. When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar, so he went near to the altar and went up on it.read more.
Then he offered his burnt offerings and his grain offerings, he poured his libations and dashed the blood of his fellowship offerings against the altar.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, "Because the gods of the king of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me." But they were {a disaster} to him and to all Israel.

He built altars in the temple of Yahweh [about] which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem." He built an altar to all of the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh.

And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Yahweh.

For the sons of the wicked Athaliah had broken into the house of God and had used all the holy vessels of the house of Yahweh for the Baals.

And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel [are] doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for [they are] saying, 'Yahweh [is] not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'" And he said to me, "Still {you will see again} greater detestable things that they [are] doing." And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that [is] toward the north, and look! There [were] the women sitting weeping for Tammuz.read more.
And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? Still {you will see again} greater detestable things than these." And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, [at] the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, [there were] about twenty-five men [with] their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they [were] bowing down toward the east before the sun.

But on account of his strength his heart grew proud unto destruction. And he acted unfaithfully against Yahweh his God and went into the temple of Yahweh to offer an incense offering on the altar. And Azariah the priest, along with eighty strong priests with him, went in after him. And they stood against King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but [it is] for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully. There will be no honor for you from Yahweh God."read more.
Then Uzziah, his censer in hand to burn incense, became angry. And when he became angry with the priests, then leprosy appeared on his forehead in front of the priests in the house of Yahweh at the altar of incense. When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him, behold, he [was] leprous in the forehead. So they rushed him away from there, and he also hastened to go out, for Yahweh had smitten him.