So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it ¹  to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” ² 

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks ¹  at it, he will live.”

The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ¹  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”

were the chambers ¹  which were toward the south. There was an opening at the head of the passage, the passage in front of the corresponding wall toward the east when one enters.

“As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, so that they will be ashamed of their sins and measure the pattern.

Yet ¹  until now ²  she has refused to acknowledge ³  that I ⁴  was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who ⁵  lavished on her the silver and gold – which they ⁶  used in worshiping Baal! ⁷ 

Israel was a fertile vine that yielded fruit. As his fruit multiplied, he multiplied altars to Baal. ¹  As his land prospered, they adorned the fertility pillars.

Even the calf idol ¹  will be carried to Assyria, as tribute for the great king. ²  Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be put to shame because ³  of its wooden idol. ⁴ 

The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ¹  – he who says ²  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’ Can it give reliable guidance? ³  It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life’s breath inside it.

The priest of the temple ¹  of Zeus, ²  located just outside the city, brought bulls ³  and garlands ⁴  to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. ⁵ 

For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened” ¹  to eat food offered to idols?

who will transform these humble bodies of ours ¹  into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you ¹  – not the washing off of physical dirt ²  but the pledge ³  of a good conscience to God – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

They have quickly turned aside ¹  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

As for your sinful thing ¹  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ²  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Then build an altar for the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern. ¹  Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.”

When the men of the city got up the next morning, they saw ¹  the Baal altar pulled down, the nearby Asherah pole cut down, and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar.

He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ¹  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ²  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ³ 

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.