But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
Parallel Translations
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But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
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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.
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But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 7:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 23:24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
- Exodus 34:13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;
- Deuteronomy 12:2-3 You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.
- Leviticus 26:1 “ ‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 7:25 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 9:21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.
- Deuteronomy 16:22 Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh your God hates.
- Judges 6:25-26 That same night, Yahweh said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. Then build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
- 2 Kings 23:6-14 He brought out the Asherah from Yahweh’s house, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people. He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn’t come up to Yahweh’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of Yahweh’s house, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron. The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon. He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.
- Exodus 32:20 He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain God would have his service pure without all idolatrous…
God would have his service pure without all idolatrous ceremonies and superstitions, Deut. 22:3.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them;…
Deu 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.
Ver. 5. And break down their images.] Cromwell did notable service here in Henry VIII’s time, by discovering the knavery of Popish priests, and pulling down those images and monuments of idolatry, the rood of grace, the blood of Hales, &c. And in Edward VI’s days, the same day the Popish pictures were publicly burnt at Paul’s Cross, the great victory was gotten by the English at Musselburgh field in Scotland. {a}
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{a} Act. and Mon.
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 Idolaters planted groves about the temples and altars of…
Idolaters planted groves about the temples and altars of their gods. Hereby God designed to take away whatsoever might bring their idolatry to remembrance, or occasion the reviving of it.
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 But thus shall ye deal with them,.... The inhabitants…
But thus shall ye deal with them,.... The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:
ye shall destroy their altars; on which they sacrificed to their idols:
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and break down their images; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:
and cut down their groves; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides (e) says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the or "grove", spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, Kg2 21:7,
and burn their graven images with fire; distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, Num 33:52.
(e) Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Their graves - Which idolaters planted about the temples…
Their graves - Which idolaters planted about the temples and altars of their Gods. Hereby God designed to take away whatsoever might bring their idolatry to remembrance, or occasion the reviving of it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 7:5. Their groves — Which idolaters planted about…
Deu 7:5. Their groves — Which idolaters planted about the temples and altars of their gods. Hereby God designed to take away whatsoever might bring their idolatry to remembrance, or occasion the reviving of it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Things. This was to be done with regard to…
Things. This was to be done with regard to the idols of Chanaan, when it was first conquered, ver. 25. Afterwards David made no scruple in wearing a crown, which had been taken from the spoils of Melchon, the idol of the Ammonites, 1 Paralipomenon xx. 2. (Calmet)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy…
thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, &c.--The removal of the temples, altars, and everything that had been enlisted in the service, or might tend to perpetuate the remembrance, of Canaanite idolatry, was likewise highly expedient for preserving the Israelites from all risk of contamination. It was imitated by the Scottish Reformers, and although many ardent lovers of architecture and the fine arts have anathematized their proceedings as vandalism, yet there was profound wisdom in the favorite maxim of Knox--"pull down the nests, and the rooks will disappear."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Cut down their groves — So most of…
5. Cut down their groves — So most of the versions render this. It should be translated cut down their images of Asherah. Asherah was the name of a Phoenician goddess, by some thought to be the same as Astarte. The images of Asherah were upright wooden columns or trunks of trees stripped of their branches. Comp. 2Ki_23:6 : “And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord.” Here the word translated groves should be rendered Asherah. The worship consisted in part of libidinous orgies.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. The change to the Pl., together with the…
5. The change to the Pl., together with the fact that the v. does not direct the destruction of the persons of the heathen (which would have been relevant to the preceding), but only of their altars, etc., marks this verse as a quotation or later insertion. Deu_7:6 follows on 4. So Steuern., Berth. Cp. the editorial passages Exo_23:24 b, Exo_34:13. The original of all three passages may be the deuteronomic law, Deu_12:3.
pillars … Asherim] See on Deu_16:21 f.
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 (5) Ye shall destroy their altars. . . .—This…
(5) Ye shall destroy their altars. . . .—This course, if adopted in a conquered territory, would be certain to bring matters to a crisis. The inhabitants must rise in defence of the objects of their worship—a course which would end in their extermination—or they must adopt the worship of Jehovah.
Their groves.—Here the grove itself in which the idol was worshipped, and so in Deu_16:21. Sometimes the word is used for the image.
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Burn their graven images with fire.—David treated the images of the Philistines thus (1Ch_14:12). Compare Isa_37:19.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 5-8. They were not only to have no…
Vers. 5-8. They were not only to have no fellowship with the idolaters, but they were to root out their idolatry, everting their altars and destroying their idols; and this because they were a holy people, graciously chosen of God to be his special possession a high privilege and honor which they were to be careful not to cast away.
Cut down their groves; rather, cut or hew in pieces their asherahs. These were, apparently, wooden pillars of considerable height, which were firmly planted in the ground? (comp. Jud 6:25-27; Deu_16:21) and were consecrated to the worship of a female deity, the companion of Baal; probably the same as that after-war, is known as Astarte, the Venus of the Syrians. (see note on Deu_16:21)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 7:5 Engraved stone pillars called stelae usually represented pagan…
7:5 Engraved stone pillars called stelae usually represented pagan male deities. These sacred pillars were commonly found at shrines dedicated to Baal. • Asherah poles, usually made of wood, represented Canaanite fertility goddesses, particularly Asherah, the mother of the gods. These shrines might have developed as stylized sacred trees associated with fertility (see study note on 12:2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.