Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’

Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale ¹  hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it.

We know our noisy worship of false gods on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹  We know that the Lord our God is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal, has taken away ¹  all that our ancestors ²  worked for. It has taken away our flocks and our herds, and even our sons and daughters.

“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ¹  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ²  Hear what the Lord has to say.

So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

Do not pay allegiance to ¹  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ²  Then I will not cause you any harm.’

I will put an end in Moab to those who make offerings at her places of worship. ¹  I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other gods. I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

“I will attack ¹  Judah and all who live in Jerusalem. ²  I will remove ³  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ⁴  as well as the very memory ⁵  of the pagan priests. ⁶ 

I will remove ¹  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ²  those who swear allegiance to the Lord ³  while taking oaths in the name of ⁴  their ‘king,’ ⁵ 

Know for sure that I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. ¹  All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, ²  and will worship him in unison. ³ 

Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, and to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹ 

But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem ¹  to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain.

He ¹  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

But a time ¹  is coming – and now is here ²  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ³  such people to be ⁴  his worshipers. ⁵ 

So ¹  he got up ²  and went. There ³  he met ⁴  an Ethiopian eunuch, ⁵  a court official of Candace, ⁶  queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He ⁷  had come to Jerusalem to worship, ⁸ 

But I confess this to you, that I worship ¹  the God of our ancestors ²  according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law ³  and that is written in the prophets.

The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and in this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is really among you.”

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴ 

He ¹  opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat ²  in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. ³