2 Kings 10:25

10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard ¹  and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. ²  Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. ³ 

2 Kings 11:18

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished ⁴  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols ⁵  to bits. ⁶  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest ⁷  then placed guards at the Lord’s temple.

Exodus 22:20

22:20 “Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord ⁸  alone must be utterly destroyed. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 13:5

13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, ¹⁰  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 13:1-2

13:1 Suppose a prophet or one who foretells by dreams ¹²  should appear among you and show you a sign or wonder, ¹³  13:2 and the sign or wonder should come to pass concerning what he said to you, namely, “Let us follow other gods” – gods whom you have not previously known – “and let us serve them.”

Deuteronomy 18:1

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ¹⁴  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 34:6

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ¹⁶  with fat;

it drips ¹⁷  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹⁸  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁹  in Bozrah, ²⁰ 

a bloody ²¹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Zechariah 13:2-3

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ²²  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land. 13:3 Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “runners.”

² tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

³ tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”

⁴ tn Or “tore down.”

⁵ tn Or “images.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.

⁷ tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

⁸ tn Heb “not to Yahweh.”

⁹ tn The verb חָרַם (kharam) means “to be devoted” to God or “to be banned.” The idea is that it would be God’s to do with as he liked. What was put under the ban was for God alone, either for his service or for his judgment. But it was out of human control. Here the verb is saying that the person will be utterly destroyed.

¹⁰ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

¹¹ tn Heb “your midst” (so NAB, NRSV). The severity of the judgment here (i.e., capital punishment) is because of the severity of the sin, namely, high treason against the Great King. Idolatry is a violation of the first two commandments (Deut 5:6-10) as well as the spirit and intent of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

¹² tn Heb “or a dreamer of dreams” (so KJV, ASV, NASB). The difference between a prophet (נָבִיא, navi’) and one who foretells by dreams (חֹלֵם אוֹ, ’o kholem) was not so much one of office – for both received revelation by dreams (cf. Num 12:6) – as it was of function or emphasis. The prophet was more a proclaimer and interpreter of revelation whereas the one who foretold by dreams was a receiver of revelation. In later times the role of the one who foretold by dreams was abused and thus denigrated as compared to that of the prophet (cf. Jer 23:28).

¹³ tn The expression אוֹת אוֹ מוֹפֵת (’ot ’o mofet) became a formulaic way of speaking of ways of authenticating prophetic messages or other works of God (cf. Deut 28:46; Isa 20:3). The NT equivalent is the Greek term σημεῖον (shmeion), a sign performed (used frequently in the Gospel of John, cf. 2:11, 18; 20:30-31). They could, however, be counterfeited or (as here) permitted to false prophets by the Lord as a means of testing his people.

¹⁴ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

¹⁵ sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

¹⁶ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

¹⁷ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁸ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁹ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

²⁰ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

²¹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

²² tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”

²³ sn Death (in this case being run…through with a sword) was the penalty required in the OT for prophesying falsely (Deut 13:6-11; 18:20-22).