⁵ The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided:^(A) If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces^(B) and your houses turned into piles of rubble.^(C)

²⁹ Therefore I decree^(A) that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble,^(B) for no other god can save^(C) in this way.”

²⁷ They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple^(A) of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

¹² This made the king so angry and furious^(A) that he ordered the execution^(B) of all the wise men of Babylon.

³³ But Samuel said,

And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.

¹⁶ You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town^(A) and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God.^(B) That town is to remain a ruin^(C) forever, never to be rebuilt,