God's altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals,

and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called "God's altar." There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood.

then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God's altar, all their weapons and equipment---everything---will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night.

Make projections at the top of the four corners. They are to form one piece with the altar, and the whole is to be covered with bronze.

His sons brought him the blood, and he dipped his finger in it, put some of it on the projections at the corners of the altar, and poured out the rest of it at the base of the altar.

Joab heard what had happened. (He had supported Adonijah, but not Absalom.) So he fled to the Tent of the LORD's presence and took hold of the corners of the altar.

The LORD is God; he has been good to us. With branches in your hands, start the festival and march around the altar.