Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! ¹  The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, ²  demolished ³  its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins. ⁴ 

In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ² 

The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up ¹  and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.

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.

She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, “Have sex with me!” But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran ¹  outside. ² 

He struck them down and defeated them. ¹  Then he went down and lived for a time in the cave in the cliff of Etam.

But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹  our lord, but he screamed at them.

On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and burned it. ¹ 

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as his father and mother. He did remove the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.

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

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

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.

He tears me down ¹  on every side until I perish; ²  he uproots ³  my hope ⁴  like one uproots ⁵  a tree.

The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!

I offered my back to those who attacked, ¹  my jaws to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, ¹  and they began to contradict ²  what Paul was saying ³  by reviling him. ⁴ 

Then the man who was possessed by ¹  the evil spirit jumped on ²  them and beat them all into submission. ³  He prevailed ⁴  against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

After ¹  we ²  tore ourselves away ³  from them, we put out to sea, ⁴  and sailing a straight course, ⁵  we came to Cos, ⁶  on the next day to Rhodes, ⁷  and from there to Patara. ⁸ 

For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ¹  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

The men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so we can execute him! ¹  He pulled down the Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.”