“Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³  I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars. The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

“Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

All this is because of Jacob’s rebellion and ¹  the sins of the nation ²  of Israel. How has Jacob rebelled, you ask? ³  Samaria epitomizes their rebellion! ⁴  Where are Judah’s pagan worship centers, you ask? ⁵  They are right in Jerusalem! ⁶ 

“On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal, I will punish the princes ¹  and the king’s sons, and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. ² 

Moreover, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy burden ¹  for all the nations, and all who try to carry it will be seriously injured; ²  yet all the peoples of the earth will be assembled against it.

But you took along the tabernacle ¹  of Moloch ²  and the star of the ³  god Rephan, ⁴  the images you made to worship, but I will deport ⁵  you beyond Babylon.’ ⁶ 

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees ¹  who had believed stood up and said, “It is necessary ²  to circumcise the Gentiles ³  and to order them to observe ⁴  the law of Moses.”

But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴ 

They came from nations about which the Lord had warned the Israelites, “You must not establish friendly relations with them! ¹  If you do, they will surely shift your allegiance to their gods.” ²  But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them. ³ 

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

With the authority of the Lord ¹  he cried out against the altar, “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says, ‘Look, a son named Josiah will be born to the Davidic dynasty. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifices on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’” ² 

He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. ¹  (22:44) ²  However, the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? ¹  Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”

They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey. ¹  They paid allegiance to ²  worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord. ³  They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ⁴ 

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.

He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined ¹  the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. ²  He tore down the high place of the goat idols ³  situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

He also tore down the altar in Bethel ¹  at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. ²  He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. ³ 

Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. ¹  He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. ²