You ¹  devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot ²  – like meat in a kettle.

He called out loudly ¹  as follows: ²  ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches! Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit! Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches!

your infants, your wives, and the ¹  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water –

The population of Egypt is like a vast, impenetrable forest. But I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that the enemy will cut them down. For those who chop them down will be more numerous than locusts. They will be too numerous to count. ² 

As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –

Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹  cut down their sacred Asherah poles, ²  and burn up their idols.

However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, ¹  and you may use it to build siege works ²  against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

May his descendants ¹  be cut off! ²  May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives! ³ 

One who quarries stones may be injured by them; one who splits logs may be endangered by them.

At that time, ¹  I will destroy the military power ²  of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”

Then if ¹  it bears fruit next year, ²  very well, ³  but if ⁴  not, you can cut it down.’”

Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. ¹ 

The leaders then added, ¹  “Let them live.” So they became ²  woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community, as the leaders had decided. ³ 

Now you are condemned to perpetual servitude as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” ¹ 

The one who touches them must use an iron instrument or the wooden shaft of a spear. They are completely burned up right where they lie!” ¹ 

“But there is hope for ¹  a tree: ²  If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, ¹  as the enemy comes marching up in force. They will come against her with axes as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.

I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst; you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ²  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

You will defeat every fortified city and every important ¹  city. You must chop down ²  every productive ³  tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” ⁴