'Down' in the Bible

See, I have appointed you todayover nations and kingdomsto uproot and tear down,to destroy and demolish,to build and plant.

For long ago I broke your yoke;I tore off your chains.You insisted, “I will not serve!”On every high hilland under every green treeyou lie down like a prostitute.

I have struck down your children in vain;they would not accept discipline.Your own sword has devoured your prophetslike a ravaging lion.

Let us lie down in our shame;let our disgrace cover us.We have sinned against the Lord our God,both we and our fathers,from the time of our youth even to this day.We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness.All its cities were torn downbecause of the Lordand His burning anger.

Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.A wolf from an arid plain will ravage them.A leopard keeps watch over their cities.Anyone who leaves them will be torn to piecesbecause their rebellious acts are many,their unfaithful deeds numerous.

For this is what the Lord of Hosts says:Cut down the trees;raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.This city must be punished.There is nothing but oppression within her.

For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:How devastated we are.We are greatly ashamed,for we have abandoned the land;our dwellings have been torn down.

for the customs of the peoples are worthless.Someone cuts down a tree from the forest;it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.

“I am about to send for many fishermen”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and they will fish for them. Then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and out of the clefts of the rocks,

“Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal My words to you.”

So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.

At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.

Therefore, hand their children over to famine,and pour the sword’s power on them.Let their wives become childless and widowed,their husbands slain by deadly disease,their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

For I have turned against this city to bring disaster and not good’”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “‘It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, who will burn it down.’

Beware! I am against you,you who sit above the valley,you atop the rocky plateau—this is the Lord’s declaration—you who say, “Who can come down against us?Who can enter our hiding places?”

This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and announce this word there.

I will appoint destroyers against you,each with his weapons.They will cut down the choicest of your cedarsand throw them into the fire.

Therefore, their way will be to themlike slippery paths in the gloom.They will be driven away and fall down there,for I will bring disaster on them,the year of their punishment.This is the Lord’s declaration.

“Then you are to say to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, as a result of the sword I am sending among you.

For he has sent word to us in Babylon, claiming, “The exile will be long. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.”’”

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Write down on a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you,

Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I be attentive to build and to plant them,” says the Lord.

For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:

The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in My wrath and rage. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their evil.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go, speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: This is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

I am about to give the command”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.”

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

They said to him, “Sit down and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

The Chaldeans will then return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire Chaldean army that is fighting with you, and there remained among them only the badly wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city down.”

Jeremiah therefore said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If indeed you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape from them.’”

All your wives and sons will be brought out to the Chaldeans. You yourself will not escape from them, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon and this city will burn down.’”

The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

and warned him, “Don’t you realize that Baalis, king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them.

Then Johanan son of Kareah suggested to Gedaliah in private at Mizpah, “Let me go kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know it. Why should he kill you and scatter all of Judah that has gathered to you so that the remnant of Judah would perish?”

but then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the 10 men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword; he killed the one the king of Babylon had appointed in the land.

Ishmael also struck down all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there.

Now the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men he had struck down was a large one that King Asa had made in the encounter with Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.

away from the Chaldeans. For they feared them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed in the land.

He will come and strike down the land of Egypt—those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, to captivity; and those destined for the sword, to the sword.

He will smash the sacred pillars of the sun temple in the land of Egypt and burn down the temples of the Egyptian gods.”

Why have your strong ones been swept away?Each has not stood,for the Lord has thrust him down.

Come down from glory; sit on parched ground,resident of the daughter of Dibon,for the destroyer of Moab has come against you;he has destroyed your fortresses.

For this is what the Lord says:He will swoop down like an eagleand spread his wings against Moab.

Therefore look, the days are coming—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will make the shout of battle heardagainst Rabbah of the Ammonites.It will become a desolate mound,and its villages will be burned down.Israel will dispossess their dispossessors,says the Lord.

As to the terror you cause,your presumptuous heart has deceived you.You who live in the clefts of the rock,you who occupy the mountain summit,though you elevate your nest like the eagle,even from there I will bring you down.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

How the hammer of the whole earthis cut down and smashed!What a horror Babylon has becomeamong the nations!

Put all her young bulls to the sword;let them go down to the slaughter.Woe to them, because their day has come,the time of their punishment.

Look, I am against you, devastating mountain—this is the Lord’s declaration—you devastate the whole earth.I will stretch out My hand against you,roll you down from the cliffs,and turn you into a charred mountain.

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

The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.