When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; ¹  you had quickly turned aside from the way he ²  had commanded you!

He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

A blacksmith works with his tool ¹  and forges metal over the coals. He forms it ²  with hammers; he makes it with his strong arm. He gets hungry and loses his energy; ³  he drinks no water and gets tired.

The Lord has issued a decree against you: ¹  “Your dynasty will come to an end. ²  I will destroy the idols and images in the temples of your gods. I will desecrate ³  your grave – because you are accursed!” ⁴ 

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor ¹  David. In his twelfth year he began ridding ²  Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images.

He ordered the altars of the Baals to be torn down, ¹  and broke the incense altars that were above them. He smashed the Asherah poles, idols and images, crushed them up and sprinkled the dust over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.

You are to make a grating ¹  for it, a network of bronze, and you are to make on the network four bronze rings on its four corners.

He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ¹  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ² 

He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid,

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.

A blacksmith could not be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, “This will prevent the Hebrews from making swords and spears.”

He had a bronze helmet on his head and was wearing scale body armor. The weight of his bronze body armor was five thousand shekels. ¹ 

Then Saul clothed David with his own fighting attire and put a bronze helmet on his head. He also put body armor on him.

Under the rim all the way around it ¹  were round ornaments ²  arranged in settings 15 feet long. ³  The ornaments were in two rows and had been cast with “The Sea.” ⁴ 

He put five basins on the south side of the temple and five on the north side. He put “The Sea” on the south side, in the southeast corner.

Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. ¹ 

At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated ¹  and gave them to the king of Assyria.

The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers ¹  and basins.

Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. ¹ 

The Lord told me, “Take a large tablet ¹  and inscribe these words ²  on it with an ordinary stylus: ³  ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ ⁴