but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.’ ¹  But you have disobeyed me. ²  Why would you do such a thing? ³ 

That very day Gideon’s father named him Jerub-Baal, ¹  because he had said, “Let Baal fight with him, for it was his altar that was pulled down.”

All three units blew their trumpets and broke their jars. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right. ¹  Then they yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

This temple will become a heap of ruins; ¹  everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, ²  saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

That day he also announced ¹  a sign, “This is the sign the Lord has predetermined: ²  The altar will be split open and the ashes ³  on it will fall to the ground.” ⁴ 

The altar split open and the ashes ¹  fell from the altar to the ground, ²  in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority. ³ 

He went and found the corpse lying in the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside it; ¹  the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor attacked the donkey.

as well as masons and stonecutters. They bought wood and chiseled stone to repair the damage to the Lord’s temple and also paid for all the other expenses. ¹ 

He took away all the gold and silver, all the items found in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace, and some hostages. ¹  Then he went back to Samaria. ²  (

He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines ¹  with human bones.

The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ¹  They took the bronze to Babylon.

As for this temple, which was once majestic, ¹  everyone who passes by it will be shocked and say, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

He removed the pagan altars ¹  and the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. ² 

All the people went and demolished ¹  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols. ²  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.

They burned down the Lord’s temple and tore down the wall of Jerusalem. ¹  They burned all its fortified buildings and destroyed all its valuable items.

Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

(4:1) ¹  When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem ²  had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.

His ¹  anger has torn me ²  and persecuted ³  me; he has gnashed at me with his teeth; my adversary locks ⁴  his eyes on me.

whom I will see for myself, ¹  and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. ²  My heart ³  grows faint within me. ⁴ 

You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; ¹  you toss me about ²  in the storm. ³