and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them);
Parallel Translations
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and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them);
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And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
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(29-16) and ye have seen their detestable things, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were with them —
Cross-references (1)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 29:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 28:36 Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 29:17 And ye have seen their abominations, and…
Deu 29:17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which [were] among them:)
Ver. 17. A root that beareth gall] An evil heart of unbelief, {Heb 3:12} a deceitful and deceived heart, {Jer 17:9 Isa 44:20} that is ever either weaving spiders’ webs - i.e., loving vanity, seeking after leasing {Psa 4:2} - or hatching cockatrice’ eggs, that is, acting mischief. {Isa 59:5} As in that first chaos were the seeds of all creatures; so in man’s heart, here therefore fitly called, a root of rottenness, of all sins. {a} Holy Bradford would never look upon any one’s lewd life with one eye, but presently reflect upon himself with the other, and say, In this my vile heart remains that sin, which without God’s special grace I should have committed as well as he.
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{a} πανσπερμια.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain What sorry tools they are, what senseless and ridiculous…
What sorry tools they are, what senseless and ridiculous deities; so that you have great reason to value your God, and to cleave to him in covenant, and to take heed of such abominable idolatries.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Lest there should be among you man or woman,…
Lest there should be among you man or woman, or family, or tribe,.... These words stand in connection with Deu 29:15, with Deu 29:16 being in a parenthesis, as may be observed, and show the design of this solemn appearance of the people, and their entering afresh into covenant; which was to prevent their falling into idolatry, and preserve them from it, whether a single person of either sex, or a whole family, or even a tribe, which might be in danger of being infected with it, and so all the people:
whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; whose heart is enticed and drawn aside at the remembrance of the idols he has seen worshipped by others; and is looking off from the Lord God, his faith in him being weakened, his fear of him removed, and his affections for him lessened; and is looking towards the idols of the nations, with a hankering mind to serve and worship them:
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lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood: the word "rosh", which we render "gall", signifies, according to Jarchi, a bitter herb, which better suits with a root than gall, and is elsewhere by us rendered "hemlock", Hos 10:4; and is by him very rightly interpreted of a wicked man among them; for not a principle of immorality, or heresy, rooted in the mind, productive of bitter fruits, or evil actions, is meant; but a bad man, particularly an idolater, who is rooted in idolatry, and is guilty of and commits abominable actions; the issue of which will be bitterness and death, if not recovered; which agrees with what the apostle says, Heb 12:15; who manifestly alludes to this passage; see the Apocrypha:"In those days went there out of Israel wicked men, who persuaded many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them we have had much sorrow.'' (1 Maccabees 1:11)and is confirmed by what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Idols - See the margin, “dungy gods;” i. e.…
Idols - See the margin, “dungy gods;” i. e. clods or stocks which can be rolled about (compare Lev 26:30).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Idols. Hebrew, "you have seen their abominations and their…
Idols. Hebrew, "you have seen their abominations and their filth, (or idols,) wood," &c. Septuagint, "their abominations and their idols."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. abominations] Rather detestable things, not to ‘ebôth, as…
17. abominations] Rather detestable things, not to ‘ebôth, as in Deu_7:25, but shiḳḳuṣîm, frequent in Jer. and Ezek. of idols, nowhere else in Deut., but the vb. from which it comes is found in Deu_7:26.
idols] Heb. gillulîm, a scornful term meaning either things gross or coarse, such as some forms of the root in Ar. mean (applied to dung, etc.), or things round or podgy, as from Heb. galal, to roll (cp. the nicknames ‘round-head’ and ‘rolling-pin’). In the Hex. only here and Lev_26:30 (H); Jer_50:2; Jer_50:39 times in Ezek. The gods of the heathen were mere blocks or boulders!
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wood and stone] Deu_4:28, Deu_28:36; Deu_28:64.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) Their abominations.—This word occurs here for the first…
(17) Their abominations.—This word occurs here for the first time, but the verb appears in Deu_7:26 (“utterly detest “), and in Lev_11:11; Lev_11:13; Lev_11:43; Lev_20:25. In the later scriptures of the Old Testament this word “abomination” is frequently used to denote an idol.
Their idols.—Either “great blocks,” or as in the margin, a term of extreme contempt. (See Lev_26:30, where the word first occurs. ) It is a favourite term with the prophet Ezekiel, who uses it four times as often as other writers in the Old Testament.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 whose heart is turning away today from Yahweh our…
whose heart is turning away today from Yahweh our God
Here "heart" refers to the whole person, and "turning away" means to stop obeying. AT: "who no longer obeys Yahweh our God" (See: Synecdoche)
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any root that produces gall and wormwood
Moses speaks of someone who secretly worships another God as if he were a root, and the evil deeds he does to serve that god, and which he encourages others to do, as a bitter plant that poisons people. AT: "any person who worships idols and causes others to disobey Yahweh" (See: Metaphor)
that person
The person described in verse 18.
bless himself in his heart
This is an idiom. AT: "congratulate himself" or "encourage himself" (See: Idiom)
though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart
This is an idiom. AT: "even though I still refuse to obey Yahweh" (See: Idiom)
This would destroy the wet together with the dry
Here the words "wet" and "dry" are metaphors for the righteous people and the wicked people. This forms a merism for "everyone." AT: "This would cause Yahweh to destroy both the righteous people and the wicked people in the land" (See: Metaphor and Merism)
wet ... dry
These nominal adjectives can be translated as nouns. Because the land was usually dry and the people needed rain so their crops would grow, these words are metaphors for "living ... dead" or "good ... bad." AT: "wet things ... dry things" or "good people ... bad people" (See: Nominal Adjectives and Metaphor)
translationWords
false god
silver
gold
family
tribe
heart
turn
God
worship
false god
nation
word
curse
bless
peace
walk
stiff-necked
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 29:17 The detestable practices were abominable manifestations of paganism,…
29:17 The detestable practices were abominable manifestations of paganism, especially regarding worship (see 7:25-26; 12:31; 13:14). • idols: The Hebrew term, meaning round things, probably alludes to dung. These objects were so reprehensible that they were compared to excrement.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.