2 Kings 10:27

2 Kings 10:27

And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.

a. ASV: And they brake down the pillar of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught-house, unto this day.

b. YLT: And break down the standing-pillar of Baal, and break down the house of Baal, and appoint it for a draught-house unto this day.

c. Amplified Bible Classic: They broke down the pillars of Baal and the house of Baal, and made it [forever unclean] a privy to this day.

d. Septuagint: And they tore down the pillars of Baal, and made his house a draught-house until this day.

e. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: They smashed the pillar of Baal, and they demolished the Temple of the Baal and designated it for latrines, until today.

1. “And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal…”

a. [And they] brake down [Strong: 5422 nâthats, naw-thats'; a primitive root; to tear down:—beat down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.]

b. [the] image [Strong: 4676 matstsêbâh, mats-tsay-baw'; feminine (causatively) participle of H5324; something stationed, i.e. a column or (memorial stone); by analogy, an idol:—garrison, (standing) image, pillar.]

c. [the] Baal [Strong: 1168 Baʻal, bah'-al; the same as H1167; Baal, a Phoenician deity:—Baal, (plural) Baalim.]

d. [and] brake down [Strong: 5422 nâthats, naw-thats'; a primitive root; to tear down:—beat down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.]

e. [Strong: 853 'eth ayth apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).]

f. [the] house [Strong: 1004 bayith, bah'-yith; probably from H1129 abbreviated; a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.):—court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth of, × great as would contain, hangings, home(born), (winter) house(-hold), inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, +within(-out).]

g. [of] Baal [Strong: 1168 Baʻal, bah'-al; the same as H1167; Baal, a Phoenician deity:—Baal, (plural) Baalim.]

2. “...and made it a draught house unto this day.”

a. [and] made [it] [Strong: 7760 sûwm, soom; or שִׂים sîym; a primitive root; to put (used in a great variety of applications, literal, figurative, inferentially, and elliptically):—× any wise, appoint, bring, call (a name), care, cast in, change, charge, commit, consider, convey, determine, disguise, dispose, do, get, give, heap up, hold, impute, lay (down, up), leave, look, make (out), mark, name, × on, ordain, order, paint, place, preserve, purpose, put (on), regard, rehearse, reward, (cause to) set (on, up), shew, stedfastly, take, × tell, tread down, (over-)turn, × wholly, work.]

b. [a] draught house [Strong: 4163 môwtsâʼâh, mo-tsaw-aw'; feminine of H4161; (marg.; compare H6675) a family descent; also a sewer:—draught house; going forth.]

1). This is an old English word used in the times that the King James Version was written. It is referring to a toilet and or relieving oneself.

a). Matthew 15:17   Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

b). Mark 7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

c. [Strong: 4280 machărâʼâh, makh-ar-aw-aw'; from the same as H2716; a sink:—draught house.]

d. unto [Strong: 5704 `ad ad properly, the same as 5703 (used as a preposition, adverb or conjunction; especially with a preposition); as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with):--against, and, as, at, before, by (that), even (to), for(-asmuch as), (hither-)to, + how long, into, as long (much) as, (so) that, till, toward, until, when, while, (+ as) yet.]

e. [this] day [Strong: 3117 yôwm, yome; from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb):—age, always, chronicals, continually(-ance), daily, ((birth-), each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), elder, × end, evening, (for) ever(-lasting, -more), × full, life, as (so) long as (... live), (even) now, old, outlived, perpetually, presently, remaineth, ×required, season, × since, space, then, (process of) time, as at other times, in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), × whole ( age), (full) year(-ly), younger.]

1). The context surrounding this verse is during the time of Jehu, who ruled Israel in the divided kingdom from 841 B.C. to 814 B.C. The following two articles highlight a similar “bathroom”or “latrine” placed in an idol temple designed to desecrate the idol or false god.  What needs to be pointed out is that both articles (one from Newsweek and the other from Haaretz, a Jewish newspaper) point to a “latrine” placed in an idols temple at Lachish, in Judah during the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah ruled in Judah the southern kingdom of the divided Israel from 728 B.C. to 686 B.C. Over a hundred years difference. The actual verse though 2 Kings 10:27 refers to Jehu and his actions. What these articles do is prove is that the practice of desecrating a false idol by turning it into a latrine, was common and used by Israel in the northern kingdom by Jehu and by Hezekiah in Judah or the southern kingdom. It should have been mentioned though that the verse itself referred to what Jehu did, approximately a hundred years previous in the northern kingdom. 

a). TOILET FOUND IN 3,000-YEAR-OLD SHRINE VERIFIES BIBLE STORIES AGAINST IDOL WORSHIP, written by Kastalia Medrano, 11/16/17, 2:29 PM EST. Archaeologists have discovered a symbolic toilet from the eighth century B.C. in Jerusalem that could be a clue to religious reforms in the Kingdom of Judah. Religious reforms, in this case, is a euphemism for quite literally defecating on the holy places one wishes to drive out of business. The stone toilet sits in Tel Lachish, a sprawling Iron Age city and the Kingdom of Judah's most important one after the capitol, Jerusalem. It was found in what the archaeologists believe to be a gate-shrine within Israel's largest ancient city gate. The ruler at that time, King Hezekiah, enacted campaigns of religious worship and reform that made their way into the Hebrew Bible on multiple occasions. In one corner of the shrine sits a stone seat with a hole in the center. The archaeologists believe that not only is it definitely a toilet, it's a toilet that was installed for the express purpose of literally desecrating the shrine. Hezekiah, it seems, was just following instructions against idol worship in the scriptures: "Then they demolished the pillar of Baal, and destroyed the temple of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day" (2 Kings 10:27). Sa'ar Ganor and Igor Kreimerman, the archaeologists who conducted the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), described their work in the article "Going to the Bathroom at Lachish" in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. "The cult worship was eradicated, here's the evidence, smashing the altar horns. But not only was it annulled, in Lachish they put in a throne, the same stone you see here," Ganor told Times of Israel while pointing to the stone toilet. The stone toilet discovered in a gate-shrine in Israel. Discovered on-site at the gate complex, which measures 80 square feet, were storage jars belonging to Hezekiah that could be indicative of his preparations for siege by Assyrian rivals. Tel Lachish was ultimately destroyed in 701 B.C. Alters within the shrine had been deliberately desecrated. The archaeologists believe the damage lines up with the Biblical references to Hezekiah's campaigns to concentrate all religious worship (only of Yahweh) in Jerusalem and outlaw it everywhere else, Lachish included.

https://www.newsweek.com/toilet-discovered-middle-ancient-jerusalem-shrine-written-bible-king-hezekiah-712800

b). Ancient Toilet Reveals the Unique Way the Judeans Fought Idol-worship

Toilet placed to defile site of pagan worship 2800 years ago backs of biblical accounts of King Hezekiah's battle to abolish idolatry. Nir Hasson  Sep 29, 2016 6:47 AM 

An ancient bench found in a biblical temple in Tel Lachish, September 2016.Sa'ar Ganor/Israel Antiquities Authority Remnants of a small temple from the days of the Kingdom of Judah have been discovered at Tel Lachish, including the first physical evidence of a toilet - which had been purposely installed on a site of pagan worship, to defile it, even if the toilet never was used. The temple, which had been located near the city's gate, had been deliberately destroyed. Whoever demolished it went out of their way to place a toilet there, to ensure the holy site would never again be used, archaeologists speculate. The findings fit with biblical descriptions of rituals aimed at abolishing idol worship by King Hezekiah in the 8th century B.C.E. Many see Lachish as the second most important city in Judea during the First Temple period, after Jerusalem. The city gate in Lachish, where the main street ran, was uncovered near where the temple was found. It is the largest find in Israel of its type from that period. British archaeologists excavated the gate about 80 years ago, followed 40 years later by an Israeli group, led by Prof. David Ussishkin. The latest dig, by the Israel Antiquities Authority, found the six-chamber structure of the gate, as well as three southern rooms. The northern chambers had been excavated previously. “According to the biblical narrative, the cities’ gates were the place where ‘everything took place’: the city elders, judges, governors, kings and officials: everyone would sit on benches at the city gate. These benches were found in our excavation,” Ganor said. The gate is temporarily covered for conservation purposes and is not now open to the public, but there are plans to do so as part of the national park’s archeological site. Sa’ar Ganor, the IAA's director who also headed the excavation, said the height of these rooms, about three meters, was around the height of the gate structure. Items found in the first chamber testify to the bureaucratic function of the gate: benches with armrests, numerous jars, scoops for loading grain and stamped jar handles that bear the name of the official or a “belonging to the king” ("lmlk") seal impression. Two of the handles bore the words, “Property of the king of Hebron.” The implements are believed to have been used as part of the taxation system. The letters "lmlk" are impressed on one of the jar handles, with a picture of a four-winged beetle scarab. Another impression is a form of the name Nahum (lnhm avadi), who was probably a senior official in Hezekiah's time. Ganor links the jars to the kingdom's military and administrative preparations for the war against Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, in the late 8th century. The walls of the temple at the gate were covered in white plaster. “Steps to the gate-shrine in the form of a staircase ascended to a large room where there was a bench upon which offerings were placed. An opening was exposed in the corner of the room that led to the holy of holies; to our great excitement, we found two four-horned altars and scores of ceramic finds consisting of lamps, bowls and stands in this room," Ganor said. "It is most interesting that the horns on the altar were intentionally truncated. That is probably evidence of the religious reform attributed to King Hezekiah, whereby religious worship was centralized in Jerusalem and the high places that were built outside the capital were destroyed," he added. In addition to the altar's horns, a toilet was installed inside the holy of holies as the ultimate form of desecration aimed at stopping idol worship at the shrine. A stone fashioned in the shape of a chair with a hole in its center was found in the corner of the room. Stones of this type have been identified in archaeological research as toilets. Evidence of abolishing sites where idols were worshipped by installing a toilet there is a familiar theme from the Bible. But these are the first archaeological finds to confirm the phenomenon. Laboratory tests suggest the toilet was never used. “Hence, we can conclude that the placement of the toilet was symbolic, after which the holy of holies was sealed until the site was destroyed,” Ganor said. The gate was destroyed by the army of Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E. The excavation revealed the burnt layers of destruction from the defeat, including arrowheads and stones used in slingshots, suggesting evidence of the hand-to-hand combat that took place there. It appears as though the Assyrians managed to breach the gate and set the area on fire. "They burned everything, made sure everyone was dead, and moved on," Ganor said. Other evidence of Sennacherib’s military campaign in Judah has been found at his palace in Nineveh, where wall reliefs depict the story of the city's conquest. 

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/ancient-toilet-shows-judeans-fought-idol-worship-1.5443823