Exodus 20:4 … Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:5… But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

Deuteronomy 7:25… The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therin: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

Deuteronomy 12:3… And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

2 Kings 17:41… So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

2 Chronicles 33:19… His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sins, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.

2 Chronicles 34:7… And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Psalm 78:58… For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Psalm 97:7… Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Isaiah 10:10… As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

Isaiah 21:9… And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

Isaiah 30:22… Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Isaiah 42:8… I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

Isaiah 42:17… They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

Jeremiah 8:19… Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

Jeremiah 50:38… A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

Jeremiah 51:47… Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

Jeremiah 51:52… Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

Hosea 11:2… As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

Micah 1:7… And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

Micah 5:13… Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

Hindu monks, large crowds call on Modi to help build Ayodhya temple

By Mayank Bhardwaj. Reuters. December 9, 2018

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Dozens of Hindu monks and tens of thousands of followers, gathered under the banner of groups linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, on Sunday urged the Indian government to help build a temple on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque. Causing a frenzy in a crowd of more than 200,000 people, Hindu seers made a series of fiery speeches laced with religious overtones to demand action paving the way for a temple in the northern town of Ayodhya.

In 1992 a Hindu mob tore down the centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya, triggering riots that killed about 2,000 people across India in one of the worst outbreaks of communal violence since Partition in 1947. After the demolition of the mosque, both Hindu and Muslim groups petitioned the Supreme Court to help resolve the issue. The top court has sought more time to give its verdict.

Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or the World Hindu Council, and their parent movement, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have asked the government to issue an executive order to build a temple, bypassing the Supreme Court.

The BJP, VHP and RSS have organized a series of religious meets to drum up support for their cause and also to put pressure on the government to issue the executive order.

Exhorting the crowd to take a vow to build a temple in Ayodhya, Hindu monk Avdheshanand Giri ji Maharaj, said: “The government and the Supreme Court must realize that it is a matter of religious sentiment for Hindus who have been waiting to see a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.”

As millions of Hindus believe that the mosque stood at the birthplace of Lord Ram, one of their most revered deities, the dispute remains at the core of tensions between the Hindus majority and India’s minority Muslims who constitute 14 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people.

Hindu groups insist that there was a temple at the site before the mosque was built in 1528 by a Muslim ruler. “I’ve come here to attend the religious congregation as a Hindu woman; not as a politician, as I believe that the issue of Ram temple is linked with the faith of India’s 80 percent people,” said Meenakashi Lekhi, a lawmaker from the BJP.

SWORDS AND SLOGANS

Ahead of Sunday’s rally, police stepped up security in the city. Anti-Muslim slogans reverberated on roads leading to the gathering near the old part of the city, where many Muslim families live. On their way to attend the religious meeting, some youths brandished swords. In the run-up to a general election due by May 2019, the BJP and other Hindu groups have ratcheted up their demand for a new temple at the disputed site.

Most analysts expect Modi’s BJP to fare worse than it did in the 2014 general election, and critics often accuse the party of using communal issues to whip up support. For the past three decades, the BJP and Hindu outfits associated with it have resurrected the Ayodhya controversy before elections, stoking tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

Uttar Pradesh, the state where Ayodha is located, has suffered repeated outbreaks of communal violence since Yogi Adityanath, a BJP hardliner seen as a potential successor to Modi, became chief minister last year.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore/Keith Weir)