'Altars' in the Bible
Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.
I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols; I will reject you.
Their duties involved the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the sanctuary utensils that were used with these, and the screen—and all the work relating to them.
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
God met with him and Balaam said to Him, “I have arranged seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”
So Balak took him to Lookout Field on top of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Balaam told Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.
Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.
You are not to make a covenant with the people who are living in this land, and you are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed Me. What is this you have done?
He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts, but the Israelites have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.”
“I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life.”
So all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They broke its altars and images into pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars.Then Jehoiada the priest appointed guards for the Lord’s temple.
Suppose you say to me: We trust in the Lord our God. Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem: You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem?’
He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.
He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put My name.”
He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.
The king tore down the altars that were on the roof—Ahaz’s upper chamber that the kings of Judah had made—and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Then he smashed them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles.
He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him.
So all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They broke its altars and images into pieces and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars.
Then Ahaz gathered up the utensils of God’s temple, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the Lord’s temple, and made himself altars on every street corner in Jerusalem.
They proceeded to take away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.
When all this was completed, all Israel who had attended went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, to the last one. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own possession.
Didn’t Hezekiah himself remove His high places and His altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before one altar, and you must burn incense on it”?
He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.
He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where Yahweh had said, “Jerusalem is where My name will remain forever.”
He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple.
He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.
Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he chopped down the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
He burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
He tore down the altars, and he smashed the Asherah poles and the carved images to powder. He chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel and returned to Jerusalem.
Even a sparrow finds a home,and a swallow, a nest for herselfwhere she places her young—near Your altars, Lord of Hosts,my King and my God.
They will not look to the altars they made with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they made with their fingers.
Therefore Jacob’s iniquity will be purged in this way,and the result of the removal of his sin will be this:when he makes all the altar stoneslike crushed bits of chalk,no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?
Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, Judah, and the altars you have set up to Shame—altars to burn incense to Baal—as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem.
The sin of Judah is writtenwith an iron stylus.With a diamond pointit is engraved on the tablet of their heartsand on the horns of their altars,
while their children remember their altarsand their Asherah poles, by the green treeson the high hills—
Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.
I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
You will all know that I am Yahweh when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak—the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.
When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,they became his altars for sinning.
Israel is a lush vine;it yields fruit for itself.The more his fruit increased,the more he increased the altars.The better his land produced,the better they made the sacred pillars.
Their hearts are devious;now they must bear their guilt.The Lord will break down their altarsand demolish their sacred pillars.
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,will be destroyed;thorns and thistles will grow over their altars.They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
Since Gilead is full of evil,they will certainly come to nothing.They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;even their altars will be like heaps of rockson the furrows of a field.
I will punish the altars of Bethelon the day I punish Israel for its crimes;the horns of the altar will be cut offand fall to the ground.
Lord, they have killed Your prophetsand torn down Your altars.I am the only one left,and they are trying to take my life!