Fire came down

The fire came down and he saw what a fool he’d been. With eyes fixed on the burning altar, he wrenched the emblem from his neck and slung it to the ground. He should have known—he knew—that crude statue beside him was no god. He pushed through the others, ran to the trench, and threw himself down full length before it, holding his polluted hands up away from holy ground. The heat blistered his shaved scalp and inflamed his bleeding arms and sides, but he did not move. Better die for presumption than live with such a lie. He wished the fire would burn away his past.

Caleb heard the prophet command "Take them all—let not one escape" and stride down the slope.