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Read the Bible

King James Version

Exodus 34:13

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Alliances;   Company;   Fellowship;   Iconoclasm;   Jealousy;   Miscegenation;   Temptation;   Thompson Chain Reference - Awakenings and Religious Reforms;   Iconoclasm;   The Topic Concordance - Covenant;   Idolatry;   Marriage;   Obedience;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Altars;   Groves;   Idolatry;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Idol, Idolatry;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Treaty;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Destroy, Destruction;   Israel;   War, Holy War;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Asherah;   Grove;   High Place;   Idolatry;   League;   Samson;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Grove;   Jehoiakim;   Pentateuch;   Zipporah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   High Place;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Asherah;   Covenant;   Hexateuch;   Idolatry;   Law;   Moses;   Pillar;   Ten Commandments;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Altar ;   Israel, Israelite;   Numbers (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Sinai;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Rove;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Events of the Encampment;   Other Laws;   On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Images;   Law in the Old Testament;   Pillar;   Ten Commandments, the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Law, Reading from the;   Pillar;   Sidra;   Stone and Stone-Worship;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
Lexham English Bible
Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles.
New Century Version
Destroy their altars, break their stone pillars, and cut down their Asherah idols.
New English Translation
Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles.
Amplified Bible
"But you shall tear down and destroy their [pagan] altars, smash in pieces their [sacred] pillars (obelisks, images) and cut down their Asherim
New American Standard Bible
"But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones, and cut down their Asherim
Geneva Bible (1587)
But yee shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake their images in pieces, & cut downe their groues,
Legacy Standard Bible
But rather, you are to tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim
Contemporary English Version
Instead, you must destroy their altars and tear down the sacred poles they use in the worship of the goddess Asherah.
Complete Jewish Bible
Rather, you are to demolish their altars, smash their standing-stones and cut down their sacred poles;
Darby Translation
but ye shall demolish their altars, shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs.
Easy-to-Read Version
So destroy their altars, break the stones they worship, and cut down their idols.
English Standard Version
You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
George Lamsa Translation
But you must destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their idols.
Good News Translation
Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah.
Christian Standard Bible®
Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Literal Translation
But you shall cut down their altars, break their pillars, and you shall cut off their Asherahs.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but their alters shalt thou ouerthrowe, & breake downe their goddes, and rote out their groaues:
American Standard Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim
Bible in Basic English
But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But ouerthrowe their aulters, and breake their images, and cut downe their groues.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim.
King James Version (1611)
But ye shall destroy their altars, breake their images, and cut downe their groues.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Ye shall destroy their altars, and break in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their groves, and the graven images of their gods ye shall burn with fire.
English Revised Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim:
Berean Standard Bible
Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But also distrie thou `the auteris of hem, breke the ymagis, and kitte doun the woodis;
Young's Literal Translation
for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down;
Update Bible Version
But you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim.
Webster's Bible Translation
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.
World English Bible
but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
New King James Version
But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
New Living Translation
Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.
New Life Bible
Instead you are to tear down their altars, break their objects of worship, and cut down their false gods.
New Revised Standard
You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For their altars, shall ye smash, And their pillars, shall ye shiver, - And their sacred-stems, shall ye fell.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But destroy their altars, break their statues and cut down their groves:
Revised Standard Version
You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their Ashe'rim
THE MESSAGE
"Tear down their altars, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their fertility poles. Don't worship any other god. God —his name is The-Jealous-One—is a jealous God. Be careful that you don't make a covenant with the people who live in the land and take up with their sex-and-religion life, join them in meals at their altars, marry your sons to their women, women who take up with any convenient god or goddess and will get your sons to do the same thing.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim

Contextual Overview

10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord : for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye shall: Exodus 23:24, Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 7:25, Deuteronomy 7:26, Deuteronomy 12:2, Deuteronomy 12:3, Judges 2:2, Judges 6:25, 2 Kings 18:4, 2 Kings 23:14, 2 Chronicles 31:1, 2 Chronicles 34:3, 2 Chronicles 34:4

images: Heb. statutes

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 16:21 - General Judges 3:7 - the groves 1 Kings 14:15 - beyond the river 1 Kings 16:33 - made a grove 2 Kings 17:10 - they set 2 Chronicles 14:3 - brake

Cross-References

Genesis 34:18
And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son.
Genesis 34:20
And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,
Genesis 34:23
Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of their's be our's? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.
Genesis 34:24
And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
Genesis 34:26
And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out.
Genesis 34:27
The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.
Genesis 34:28
They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,
Genesis 34:29
And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.
Judges 15:3
And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
Job 13:4
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But ye shall destroy their altars,.... On which they had sacrificed to their idols; since, if they were allowed to continue, they might be temptations to offer sacrifice thereon, contrary to the command of God:

break their images: of gold or silver, wood or stone, which they made for themselves, and worshipped as deities; seeing if these continued, the sight of them might lead to the worship of them, and so bring under the divine displeasure, as a breach of the command of God given them:

and cut down their groves; which were clusters of trees, where they had their temples and their idols, and did service to them, and where, besides idolatry, many impurities were committed. Such places were originally used by good men for devotion, being shady and solitary, but when abused to superstitious and idolatrous uses, were forbidden. It is said n, the word for "grove" is general, and includes every tree they serve, or plant, for an idol.

n R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 72. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The precepts contained in these verses are, for the most part, identical in substance with some of those which follow the Ten Commandments and are recorded in “the Book of the covenant” (Exo. 20–23; see Exodus 24:7).

Exodus 34:13

Cut down their groves - This is the first reference to what is commonly known as grove-worship. The original word for “grove” in this connection אשׁרה 'ăshêrāh is different from that so rendered in Genesis 21:33. Our translators supposed that what the law commands is the destruction of groves dedicated to the worship of false deities Judges 6:25; 2 Kings 18:4; but inasmuch as the worship of asherah is found associated with that of Astarte, or Ashtoreth Judges 2:13; Jdg 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4, it seems probable that while Astarte was the personal name of the goddess, the asherah was a symbol of her, probably in some one of her characters, made in wood in some conventional form.

Exodus 34:15-16

An expansion of Exodus 34:12. The unfaithfulness of the nation to its covenant with Yahweh is here for the first time spoken of as a breach of the marriage bond. The metaphor is, in any case, a natural one, but it seems to gain point, if we suppose it to convey an allusion to the abominations connected with pagan worship, such as are spoken of in Numbers 25:1-3.

Exodus 34:21

See Exodus 20:9; Exodus 23:12. There is here added to the commandment a particular caution respecting those times of year when the land calls for most labor. The old verb “to ear” (i. e. to plow) is genuine English.

Exodus 34:24

Neither shall any man desire etc. - Intended to encourage such as might fear the consequences of obeying the divine law in attending to their religious duties. Compare Proverbs 16:7.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 34:13. Ye shall destroy their images — See the subjects of this and all the following verses, to Exodus 34:28, treated at large in the notes on "Exodus 23:24".


 
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