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.’”

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ²  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ³ 

What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ¹ 

Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and that you don’t pay homage to the golden statue that I erected?

He will also take their gods into captivity to Egypt, along with their cast images and prized utensils of silver and gold. Then he will withdraw for some years from ¹  the king of the north.

For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities ¹  are God’s servants devoted to governing. ² 

Suppose your own full brother, ¹  your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods ²  that neither you nor your ancestors ³  have previously known, ⁴ 

The Lord asked, ¹  “How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem? ²  Your people ³  have rejected me and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all. ⁴  Even though I supplied all their needs, ⁵  they were like an unfaithful wife to me. ⁶  They went flocking ⁷  to the houses of prostitutes. ⁸ 

They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

Who among all the gods of these nations whom my predecessors annihilated was able to rescue his people from my power? ¹ 

Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? ¹ 

He will not respect ¹  the gods of his fathers – not even the god loved by women. ²  He will not respect any god; he will elevate himself above them all.

Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! ¹  In the presence of our relatives ²  identify whatever is yours and take it.” ³  (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.) ⁴ 

He will set fire ¹  to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn their gods or carry them off as captives. ²  He will pick Egypt clean like a shepherd picks the lice from his clothing. ³  He will leave there unharmed. ⁴ 

They replied, ¹  “Caesar’s.” He said to them, ²  “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ³ 

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ¹  And they were utterly amazed at him.

So ¹  he said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ² 

So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ¹  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ²  are going. They ³  will reject ⁴  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ⁵ 

I will do so because these people ¹  have rejected me and have defiled ²  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ³  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ⁴