Tear Down, Pull, and Destroy

Background:

to break down — to cause to fall or collapse. Stems: qal, 29; piel, 6. See also ערף 2, פרץ 1, קרר 1, שׁבר 1. Related Topic: Break.

qal

Καθαιρεσις [Kathairesis] is old word from καθαιρεω [kathaireō], to take down, to tear down walls and buildings. Carries on the military metaphor. Ὀχυρωμα [Ochurōma] is old word, common in the Apocrypha, from ὀχυροω [ochuroō], to fortify, and that from ὀχυρος [ochuros] (from ἐχω [echō], to hold fast). Nowhere else in N. T. In Cilicia the Romans had to tear down many rocky forts in their attacks on the pirates.

Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (2 Co 10:4). Broadman Press.Brannan, R., ed. (2020). In Lexham Research Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible. Lexham Press.Josiah comes to prominence as the youngest king in the history of Israel and Judah. His name likely means “Yahweh will give.”

In 622 BC he discovers the book of the Law which perpetuated mass reforms and an upheaval of all of the years of idol worship that was integrated into the worship of Yahweh.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (The Book of the Law)

The Book of the Law

In the 18th year of his reign, Josiah sent Shaphan the scribe to the temple to arrange with Hilkiah the high priest for the necessary temple repairs. Hilkiah delivered to Shaphan a book, technically a scroll, which he had found in the “house of Yahweh,” that is, in the main temple building. He identifies this scroll as the “book of the law,” which may correspond to the account in Deut 31:24–26 that records Moses’ instructions for depositing a copy of the “book of the law”—meaning Deuteronomy itself—in the temple itself. When Shaphan reads this book to the king, Josiah is distressed because the book contained Yahweh’s laws which had been unknown, forgotten, or ignored, but the worst part was the fearful curses accompanying failure to keep the covenant laws. The king sent a delegation to Huldah the prophetess for an insight from God on the book; she assured them that the curses were valid and that all the judgments written in the book were impending.

2 Kings 23:1–24 (KJV 1900)

And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.

5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.

8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

15 Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.

16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el.

18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.

19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.

20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.

24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 10:3–6 (KJV 1900)

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Proverbs 21:20–22 (KJV 1900)

20  There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise;

But a foolish man spendeth it up.

21  He that followeth after righteousness and mercy

Findeth life, righteousness, and honour.

22  A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty,

And casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof.