⁴⁵ So Abimelech fought against the city all that day; ^(A)he took the city and killed the people who were in it; and he ^(B)demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

²⁵ Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it; and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees. But they left the stones of ^(A)Kir Haraseth intact. However the slingers surrounded and attacked it.

²³ ‘The whole land is brimstone, ^(A)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, ^(B)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’

¹³ For ^(A)judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown ^(B)no ^(C)mercy. ^(D)Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹¹ But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.

Jeroboam’s Gold Calves

²⁵ Then Jeroboam ^(A)built^[a] Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built ^(B)Penuel.