Islam’s Deity and the Bible’s Deity

Introduction

Religions are anchors for souls. A religion is a system of beliefs, usually including gods and sometimes goddesses, that incorporates morality and ethics and prescribed behaviours for life and living. Religions are anchors for folks whether or not they are true or truth. A person has a personality that is built in, a character that the person determines, and a religion that the person finds useful for living according to the person’s own determined character.

Anyone who attacks the religion of another is attacking the foundation for the person’s character, and is also attacking the very anchor for the person’s soul by which the person is kept from deteriorating into total lawlessness. It is a great evil to attack the religion of another; it is akin to attacking the person, and sometimes to attacking an entire culture. It will cause wars, and is totally unnecessarily.

Anyone who fears the God of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob will not attack the religion of another. Even when Yehovah commanded the annihilation of the Canaanites, His command was to destroy them. Only after they were destroyed were the Israelis then commanded to destroy their images; that command was so that the Israelis would not take up where the Canaanites left off (worshipping their gods and goddesses and doing their vile, sinful practices).

The only being who has the right to destroy the religion of anyone is a god/God. Persons who take this upon themselves are deifying themselves; they are violating what alone is the right of a god/God. That is self-idolatry. They do no service, and they cause the needless deaths of folks who are not even involved. They create situations for riots and slaughters. They feel innocent, but they are as guilty as those who slaughter the innocent. They feel as if they are doing their own deity a service when in fact they are demonstrating that their own deity doesn’t have the power to take care of things for himself/herself! No one turns a person to truth by destroying error. A person must voluntarily turn to truth, and not be forced by external force. There is no such thing as forced faith.

The following comparisons and contrasts of the deity in Islam and the deity in the Bible are not made with contempt for one faith and respect for another; they are considerations that followers of both faiths will mainly find agreeable. (If not, a person in either faith can correct me by emailing me on this website.)

Note: Many hold the view that there is one God, and that different folks hold different interpretations of that one God (including his character, what he wants, what he does, and which books represent him and his will). Their views don’t allow for the idea that the deity of Islam and the deity of Christianity (for examples) are two different deities, but rather just different views of exactly the same deity. I do not approach this paper from this view. If I hear a description of a deity that includes characteristics that are the opposite of another deity’s characteristics, I view the two deities as distinct deities. (I personally don’t hold the view that there is more than one true deity, but rather that there is one real and many false gods; if there were more than one real deity, they would be fighting with each other!)

Every human—even within the same religious frame—has a different view of the characteristics of God. While those who hold the same religious frame also believe that they all within that frame have the same God, most also believe that others outside of that frame also believe in the same God, but with wrong interpretations of his characteristics! In this discussion, I will treat the deities as distinct. I will call one “the deity of the Bible” and the other “the deity of Islam.” Since many who are educated within Islam hold the view that the Bible has been altered by the Jews, and thus the deity of the Bible has been altered, discussing the two deities in this way seems the wisest. I will therefore compare and contrast these two deities without casting a vote for which one is right.

Comparisons and Contrasts

 

Islamic Deity Characteristics	Biblical Deity Characteristics	Differences/Similarities
There is only one God.	There is only one God.	This point is the same. The universe and beyond only has one God.
God can only be manifested as one being.	God can appear in different forms, depending on the situation: as Angel Yehovah, as Yehovah of Hosts (Yehovah over the armies), as a man, and as a mortal.	The deity of Islam doesn’t make personal appearances to humans unless to speak to his prophet; he remains hidden.
God does not appear as a human.	God does appear as a human at various times, and can be born as a mortal in one place at one time (while still being God and being everywhere).	The Gods (plural, but being one deity) of the Bible is able to appear and live among humans; the deity of Islam will never do such a thing, and will always remain only ‘transcendent’ (that is, beyond what humans can see and know).
God looks to humans to bring about his will.	Yehovah does not need or desire the help of humans to bring about His will; He calls humans to obey, but not to be entrepreneurs for the faith or for Him. (Being entrepreneurs for Him interferes!)	In Islam, if the deity is insulted, a faithful Muslim is under obligation to defend the reputation of the deity. In the Biblical faith, if the deity is insulted, a faithful follower of the Bible has no business defending the deity. The deity can fight for Himself. The faithful follower certainly can defend the Israelis, as David did in the war with Goliath, but defending Yehovah’s Name is up to Yehovah.   The same thing is true when it comes to bringing in the kingdom of the deities. Followers of Islam are under obligation to bring the kingdom of their deity to earth; followers of the Bible cannot possibly do this, and to try to do this is to insult Yehovah (and to bring Yehovah’s wrath).
God has already sent the final prophet, and his name is Mohammed.	Yehovah certainly hasn’t sent any final prophet; that won’t occur until the end of the Tribulation.	The deity in Islam has nothing more to say; he is finished speaking until the judgment. His final words were through the prophet Mohammed. Yehovah has much more to say, and He won’t be finished speaking to folks on earth as long as the earth lasts.
God has very different afterlife promises for men and for women.	Yehovah will judge men and women with the very same standard, and will reward with the very same rewards.	The Islamic deity has sexually based promises for men who are faithful and go to the heavens; those promises are very different from the ones for women who are faithful. Yehovah, on the other hand, has promises that are not sexually based. Those promises are in forms of rank and responsibility achieved by faithfulness during mortal life, and will be permanently granted on the New Earth. Thus, descriptions of ‘heaven’ for Islamic followers and the New Earth for Biblical followers are extremely different.
Removal of sin in Islam is accomplished by works of the person who sinned.	Removal of sin in the Bible is accomplished by works of Yehovah Himself, and not by the sinner.	In Islam, a person can be a vile and violent sinner, and continue in that lifestyle, while suicidally dying for the Islamic faith; that person will be cleared of all sin. In the Bible, a person can start out being a vile and violent sinner, and then turn to truth and the fear of Yehovah, looking to Him for forgiveness of sin; if he or she then suicidally dies to save the lives of others, he or she is a great hero/heroine of faith.   Islam has nothing to do with a human who is God being a sacrifice for sin; that is considered an abomination in Islam. The Biblical faith supports the idea of God being perfectly able to come as a human and to be a sacrifice to save the lives of others and to remove sin.
God cannot die. He cannot transform himself into a form that can die.	Yehovah can easily take part of Himself and send that part as a fully mortal human to die for others (while God, as a whole, cannot and will not die).	Yehovah is not limited in this area. It is both possible and reasonable to take part of himself and reserve that part as a mortal. The Biblical deity is described with far fewer restrictions on what he can and cannot do. The Islamic deity’s oneness is so absolute, that separating himself into parts just isn’t possible or reasonable; the very idea is an abomination. Yehovah, on the other hand, is everywhere, and thus he can be in two places at one time, in three places at one time, and at an infinite number of places at one time, with one of those manifestations being fully mortal.
The words of the final prophet, Mohammed, supersede the words of all previous prophets.	The words of all true prophets are the very words of Salvation (Yeshua), and no speech of any prophet supersedes the speeches of any other prophets.	Since Mohammed is the final prophet in Islam, and since his words stand above all others, the prophet ‘Jesus’ (whom followers of Islam recognize as being one of the prophets of the Islamic deity) and his words are not the final say in matters of faith and truth. If Mohammed said something, anything that ‘Jesus’ said was of less standing than what Mohammed said.   In the Biblical faith, Salvation himself is the source of all true prophecy that has ever been given, and thus all prophecy of that nature stands on equal footing. There is no changing of Truth with time or circumstances.
The Islamic deity didn’t preserve a correct copy of the ‘Old Testament.’	Yehovah has preserved the ‘Old Testament’ such that it is the rule of faith and the basis of Truth.	According to followers of Islam, the deity infallibly gave truth in the form of what we in English call the ‘Old Testament’ or in Hebrew, the Tenach (the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings). The Jews handled it, and later the Jews corrupted it so badly, that truth was lost; the prophet Mohammed thus was sent to speak on this Bible and explain what it was truly about. That speech is the Koran/Quran; it is the Islamic ‘New Testament’ of their deity. If there is an uncorrupted form of the ‘Old Testament,’ it is not disseminated, and is therefore unavailable; followers of Islam need only to listen to and obey the Koran.   According to followers of the ‘New Testament,’ the ‘Old Testament’/Tenach is Truth. Beyond this, there is much disagreement as to whether or not the ‘New Testament’ changes the will of God regarding the ‘Old Testament’/Tenach. Some believe that both are unchanged and unchanging, while a large group believes that their deity abolished the Law (Torah), and thus changed the means of salvation from sin, etc.   According to followers of the Tenach, the Tenach isn’t changed or changing, and it is Truth. Beyond this, however, there are many who believe that the deity of the Tenach spoke far beyond the Tenach, giving also the Talmud that interprets the Tenach. Thus, the Talmud is a ‘New Testament’ in Judaism. It significantly interprets what the Tenach declared, and those who take the Tenach literally and without the aid of the Talmud’s commentaries are in violation of the will of their deity.   There are some—a very small number—who believe the ‘Old’ and ‘New Testaments’ as agreeing, as having no changes in the deity described, in the deity’s plan, and in the consistence between the writings. Folks with this faith don’t fit well in any of the major religions that claim a basis in the God of Avraham.
The Islamic deity isn’t concerned about the deaths of infidels. Their slaughters are well deserved, and he is well pleased with their deaths and those who cause their deaths.	Yehovah never takes pleasure in the deaths of those outside of faith. While slaughters are sometimes well deserved because of the vileness of very sinful practices, Yehovah sometimes preserves pagan idolaters who either are not practicing vile sins, or who will turn from vile sinning to living within boundaries. He often sustains peaceful pagans and idolaters.	The deity in Islam commands the subjugation and slaughter of those outside of the Islamic faith if they won’t turn. Yehovah the deity of the Bible isn’t interested in his followers subjugating other races; if there is subjugating to be done, he will do it himself (as in the Millennium), and he will do it to save lives and not to slaughter.   Islam’s deity doesn’t command the thrust to save the lives of infidels (those outside of Islamic faith); Yehovah’s thrust is always to save lives. When he slaughters or commands a slaughter, He does so to limit vile sinning and violence against the innocent.   The difference between normal sinning and vile sinning is that vile sinning always has to do with violence. Yehovah hates violence against the innocent, whether or not the innocent are pagan (‘infidels’), and He hearkens to the shouts of pagans when they are being mistreated by the violent (whether the violent are religious or not). Yehovah is interested in life, and He hates what breeds and causes death.   Every person is made in the image of Yehovah, according to the Biblical faith, and thus the slaughter of every person is worthy of mourning.
The Islamic deity cannot tolerate ‘competition’ from any other deity.	Yehovah isn’t concerned about competition from ‘no gods’ (non-existing gods) except when it comes to Israel. He becomes very angry and jealous when the Israelis whore with a ‘no god (non-existing god),’ and He intentionally throws Israel into the hands of enemies who worship false gods so that the Israelis can shout out to the pagans’ gods for help until they wise up and see that they don’t work for Israel. In the meantime, Yehovah often makes sure that they are greatly diminished until they turn from false gods.   When other groups besides Israel go after false gods, Yehovah doesn’t interfere unless they become vile and violent in their sinfulness.	The Islamic deity commands and desires his followers to convert the world to him, ruling out all competition by destroying the competition. Yehovah commands no such thing, since he will take down idols in his own time and in his own way as he describes in the Tenach. He needs no help and desires no help from any of His followers to destroy competition from false gods among the other races, instead desiring to win some from the races through His mighty works and goodness. He has commanded the Israelis to rid Israel of all false gods and to put Israelis to death who will not rid themselves of these gods if and when Israel is in the land of Israel and is obedient to the Torah. Under any other conditions, as when Israelis are in the Land of Israel and not being obedient to the Torah, or when the Israelis are outside of the Land of Israel, Yehovah Himself will deal with Israeli idolatry.   No individual Israeli has the right to enforce the no idols policy on other Israelis except under the two conditions: Israelis are in the land, and all Israel is under the rule of the Torah. Even then, the individual Israeli must bring the accusation of idolatry to the gates of the city for the accusation to be researched. Personal vengeance is not permitted by the deity of the Bible.   The Israelis are commanded to treat pagan and idolatrous travelers very well while they are in the Land of Israel as sojourners (when the Torah is being practiced by entire Israel). Idolatrous travelers must be made aware that they cannot practice idolatry in the land while they are there as sojourners, but their faiths and objects that they have among their stuff are their own business.
The Islamic deity concentrates on past glories. Followers of devoted Islam are still living in the world of the crusades, seeing the occupation of Jerusalem by infidels as being a continuation of the crusades. The main focus of modern fundamental Islam is the infidel and the past, and on followers of Islam being righteous, including clearing out the infidel.	The Biblical deity concentrates on the future. He commands personal and group righteousness first before there can be peace, and connects the personal and group righteousness of Israelis and all Israel with peace. He guarantees that this will occur in the future, only citing the past as ways of telling what will come and whether or not it is of the Biblical deity.	Any group that is backward-looking tries to preserve and conserve. This is what is destroying conservative Christianity—a form of mainline Christianity that is destroying itself. A group that is forward-looking, knowing what is coming and how to rightly behave will not attempt to conserve and preserve past glories, but will work for the future and for life.   Personal and group righteousness will be the main focuses if any faith will be consistently beneficial to society. Faiths that stare at the past will trip and fall in the present, and will not exist in the future. The past is good from which to learn; history is an excellent teacher if the history is a true history; but those who only stare at history and who have no real view to the future are walking backward, and will trip and fall. Religions that see past glories and that have few present glories can become havens for bitterness.
The Islamic deity is known by non-Islamic folks for being a revenge deity that permits great cruelty among his followers. Fear of death and pain are some of the greatest draws to this deity. There is almost no publically taught concept of love associated with this deity.	Yehovah does take vengeance against the violent and vile sinners who will breed death among the innocent (including ‘innocent’ pagan idolaters), but he never destroys the innocent with the wicked. He does promote fear among humans, and this fear is a real fear. Yet, he is to be feared because forgiveness is with him. He has no desire to draw anyone to him by a fear of death and pain. He doesn’t permit cruelty to increase followers. He offers life, not pain and death. He demonstrates the strongest love toward anyone from any group and from any religion if that person delights in doing right, delights in practicing appropriate personal justice (not including uncommanded vengeance), and demonstrates selflessness.	Islam is a religion that permits and commands coercion. The Biblical faith is never obtained by coercion or anything related to it. If anyone will obtain faith in the Biblical deity, it will be by some means that the person pursues, never by coercion.   Some forms of Christianity strongly believe in a Calvinistic approach with God and the spirit of God coercing folks to believe. These forms of Christianity are in violation of the Bible. Yehovah indeed coerces, but not when it comes to faith. He coerces when it comes to bringing what He has determined to do; yet, no person will ever come to faith by this means. Coercion destroys the basis of faith.   A good and true faith will never need to use coercion to win adherents. A good and true faith will not be threatened by dissent.
The Islamic deity is threatened by dissent against the Koran and against the prophet Mohammed.	The Biblical deity isn’t threatened by anything. All acts of blasphemy (insult) against the prophets of Yehovah and Yehovah himself, and all attempts to destroy copies of the Bible are considered non-threatening to the faith and to the deity, and therefore are not reasons to rally. Yehovah can easily show His own power in any age and at any time and place that he desires. Insulting his prophets and destroying his writings aren’t threatening to him.   A king once burned a copy of the prophet Jeremiah’s scroll; Yehovah told Jeremiah to write it again. If all copies of the Bible were destroyed, Yehovah would just dictate it again. If all the prophets had been killed, Yehovah would have raised up other prophets, and could easily have raised those prophets themselves from the dead.	If folks burn the Koran and blaspheme the prophet Mohammed, faithful followers of Islam feel obliged to avenge—that is, to slaughter to uphold the name and importance of the deity of Islam. The Koran (that is, the physical book in any language) is more valuable than a human life.   If folks burn copies of the Bible and blaspheme the deity of the Bible and his prophets, those who believe in the Bible will not see any reason to harm those doing the burnings and blaspheming. If, on the other hand, a synagogue is set ablaze, one who fears God may attempt to save the precious scrolls at the risk of his/her life. That is risking self, not destroying others, for the sake of a precious scroll.   While the scriptures are much more valuable than individual lives in the Islamic and Biblical faiths, in Islam, killing others to maintain the importance of the scriptures (and thus, defending the scriptures and the deity associated with the scriptures) is a vital part of true faith. In the faith of the Bible, saving the lives of others to maintain and prove the importance of the scriptures (and thus, defending the innocent, including innocent pagans) is a vital part of true faith.
The Islamic deity cannot tolerate divergent teachings; the teachings must all be the same, and from the same sect of Islam.	Yehovah cannot tolerate the Israelis going after other gods, and will judge them for this. Apart from this, there is nothing in the Bible that disallows writings that challenge or disagree with what Yehovah has taught. Thus, a person can be a faithful follower of Yehovah and have books on evolution, books written by Greek homosexual philosophers, on witchcraft, etc. Yehovah has commanded those who fear Him to refuse to practice idolatry (including pornography), but He never commanded against having anything to do with idolaters and the pagans of this world.	Islam cannot tolerate competition. The deity of the Bible will always prove himself through competition. The entire seven years of Tribulation will be a competition between the greatness of the antichrist (the Assyrian) and Yehovah. Yehovah will maintain the rules of this competition so that the demonic angels cannot use their great powers to directly slaughter the good guys, but they can work through the bad guys to slaughter the good guys. Yehovah, on the other hand, will give the Saints the power to save the lives of some of the bad guys, showing Yehovah’s goodness, even while Yehovah himself will slaughter a huge number of the bad guys. Thus, followers of Yehovah will be competing to save lives; followers of other deities will be competing to kill. Yehovah will then cause all false gods to quit working.   Followers of Yehovah will fight in wars, and will be great warriors. They will slaughter marvelously, but they will also be kind to captured enemies who weren’t known for torturing others.
The deity of Islam never maintains false gods (‘no gods’) so that they work; he instead sets about to destroy them (that is, their images) using his followers.	Yehovah maintains the demons to empower the false gods (the ‘no gods’) so that individuals and groups have a temporary anchor for their souls through their false gods. Thus, prayers to the false gods are answered as often (or perhaps more so) than prayers to Yehovah (since real prayers to Yehovah are so rare).	Islam must destroy all other gods. Yehovah, on the other hand, makes certain that they work so that there is peace in societies to a far greater degree than there would be were all gods to quit working. Yehovah doesn’t fear competition. When the time is right, he will ‘pull the plug’ on false gods.   The great Soviet experiment included attempting to wipe out all religion, the opiate of the masses. The result was a condition in which citizens had no anchors for their souls. Lawlessness and violence, hatred and cruelty went unchecked. When folks will not believe in Truth, they need a religion to give them stability in life. Where there is no religion, there can be no ethics or morality, since both always assume a deity.   Yehovah will not stop the false gods by sending followers to root them out; he will just stop them from working; followers of false gods will abandon them as trash once they see that they aren’t working.
The Islamic deity claims to have no idols, but the Cube (in Mecca) acts as an image in Islam. Any attempt to harm the Cube is an attempt against the deity.	Yehovah Himself has made certain that the Temple in Israel was destroyed when the Israelis went after other gods and were kicked out of the Land of Israel. There is no icon or holy item in the faith of Yehovah that is a representation of Him except two: The lid of the Ark of the Testimony, and his image that every human wears. Concerning the lid, once it was made, it was hidden from sight. The lid teaches about Yehovah, but the Ark and its lid are never worshipped or sought on a hajj (a pilgrimage).   Every human (Israeli, Islamic, eastern, African, head-hunting, whatever) is made in the image of Yehovah. Having this physical image (the human body) is a responsibility. How one treats others (including prisoners) reflects on how one is treating Yehovah because these others wear the very image of Yehovah. Yehovah designed every human to be a holy (owned by him) image of God. Most have no desire to be owned by the deity of the Bible, choosing to be self-owned or owned by other deities.	Islam treats its holy sites as if they are images of their deity. Thus, while they claim to have no images, they have very large images.
The Islamic deity has very different values for its male humans and its female humans, for free persons and for slaves.	Yehovah claims that both males and females of the human species are made in his image; their value is the value of his image. The same is true for slaves.	Faithful followers of Islam’s deity can harm others without trials under certain circumstances, like women and slaves, without drawing the wrath of their deity. Even cutting off bodily parts for numerous reasons is considered a legitimate form of punishment.   Yehovah, on the other hand, commanded amputation for only one easily avoidable crime (or as civil vengeance for intentional amputation of others).   Women in the Bible are some of the greatest of the heroes and heroines, and they are never blamed for the fall of man into sin. Women have as much opportunity to be leaders in rank as men, and no Israeli man is permitted to mistreat an Israeli or non-Israeli woman, period.
The Islamic deity is not personal.	The Biblical deity is very personal.	Being personal includes physically appearing, directly speaking to folks, and participating in the details of important situations—situations important to the deity.   The Islamic deity sees what humans do, but rarely interferes. Yehovah sees what humans do, and participates whenever He chooses in any way He chooses. Thus, He can appear to a woman working in a field to tell her that she will become pregnant, and to tell her how to deal with the child before the child is born and as the child grows.   A woman who is unmarried can physically hug the Biblical deity if he appears as a man. This is totally unreasonable for the Islamic deity.
The Islamic deity commands women to conceal themselves, and thus their beauty, in order to diminish the lust of the men.	The Biblical deity commands men and women to show self-control. The only command for Israelis regarding dress is for them to dress modestly.   In the Bible, whores used to cover their faces to show that they were whores (see Genesis 38:14,15).	The Islamic deity calls for control over the environment to control the behaviours of humans. This doesn’t work, of course, since humans in war do whatever they desired to do in the first place, and they aren’t blamed for these things by the Islamic deity.   The deity of the Bible calls for self-control in all circumstances, since others are in his image. Thus, one who fears Yehovah may take slaves in war, but raping a woman taken as prisoner is a violation against Yehovah. Even if a man sees a completely naked woman, if he fears Yehovah, he will seek to cover her, and not to mistreat her or berate her for being immodest.

 

 

The differences between the above-described deities are very great and numerous. The expectations from the deities are very different, and the treatment of humans will be very different under the different faiths.

 

I am glad to have anyone knowledgeable in Islam correct me if I am wrong on any of these things that I have said, and to show me from the Koran (and not from some other source) that I have been mistaken. I will be glad to correct what is wrong. I prefer that this be done one fact at a time, however, and with proof.

 

Persons under any faith system will greatly vary in behaviours and practices. This is part of the make-up of humans. Since character is voluntary, some will choose a character that is kind to those outside of their faiths while others will choose a character that is cruel and unkind. Thus, a person who is very devoted to fundamental Islam might be very kind to a so-called ‘infidel’ without any compunction to destroy the ‘infidel,’ while another who is very devoted to the same faith might have only contempt and hatred for an ‘infidel.’ A person who fears Yehovah, the Gods of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob doesn’t have the liberty of varying in this way. If such a person shows contempt and hatred to another on the basis alone that that person doesn’t hold the Biblical faith (such a hatred being a form of racism), that person proves that he/she doesn’t fear Yehovah at all. Forms of racism all hold Yehovah in contempt (as if He were stupid for designing cultural and colour differences among humans).

 

A faith that is strong will hold up even when the environment is totally antagonistic to its principles, ethics and morality. A faith that is weak and yet zealous must force the environment and all who are in that environment to conform. The strength of a faith reflects the supposed strength of the faith’s deity. Some faiths just cannot survive outside of their own environmental bubbles; others can survive anywhere and at any time.

 

Contentions between followers of faiths that are about the differences in the faiths are really contentions between the deities of those faiths. If one of the deities is truly God and the others aren’t, there won’t be any problem overcoming a non-existing god; that is like shadowboxing. If both of the deities aren’t real, the followers of one deity will either win on the basis of the strength of followers or there will be a tie on the same basis; a non-existing god can’t do much.

 

If the group with the real deity has angered the deity such that the group won’t be permitted to win until the group becomes righteous, the reputation of the deity will be harmed and lowered in accordance with the loss suffered by the deity’s people/peoples. If, on the other hand, the deity that is real publicly warns its people/peoples of the loss of war, how it will occur, and why—what specifically is being done that is wrong that infuriates the deity, and all the details that will occur in this process, these things will enhance the reputation of the deity instead of diminishing it. Yehovah warned Israelis and Israel, telling them exactly what angers him, what he will do to the Israelis, and how he will disperse them among the idolatrous, pagan races because of their violations. He also gave details of how this situation will continue and how it will end.

 

The fight between the Palestinians and Israel is truly a fight between deities. The fight between the Islamic world and Israel is also a fight between deities. Humans can try to help their deities by fighting in their deities’ places, but what makes more sense is to ask the deities to fight for themselves; the best (and real) deity will win.

 

Judges 6:24 And Gidon built an altar there to Yehovah. And he called to him Yehovah-Shalom-unto-This-Day. He is yet in Aphrah father of the Ezreem. ²⁵And he was in that night. And Yehovah said to him, “Take the bull of the ox that is to thy father, and a second seven-year bull. And thou shalt tear-down the altar of Baal that is to thy father. And thou shalt cut the asherah that is by him. ²⁶And thou shalt build an altar to Yehovah thy Gods upon the head of this stronghold in a battle-line. And thou shalt take the second bull. And thou shalt make-ascend an ascension via trees of the asherah that thou shalt cut.” ²⁷And Gidon took ten men from his slaves. And he did just-as Yehovah spoke unto him. And he was just-as he feared the house of his father and men of the city from doing, daily. And he did, night. ²⁸And men of the city early-rose in the morning. And behold, the altar of the Baal was torn-down, and the asherah that is beside him was cut! And the second bull of the ascension is upon the built altar! ²⁹And they said, a man unto his neighbour, “Who did this speech?” And they researched. And they asked. And they said, “Gidon son of Yoash did this speech!” ³⁰And men of the city said unto Yoash, “Exit thy son, and he has died! For he tore-down the altar of the Baal, and for he cut the asherah that is beside him!” ³¹And Yoash said to all who stood beside him, “Will ye fight to Baal? If ye, ye will save him! Whoever will fight to [for] him shall die unto the morning! If he is gods, he will fight to himself! For he tore-down his altar!” ³²And he called to him Baal-Will-Fight in that day to say, “The Baal will fight via him! For he tore-down his altar!”