You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me.
Parallel Translations
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You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me.
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Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
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(20-20) Ye shall not make with Me — gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Exodus 20:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 20:39 “ ‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols.
- 2 Kings 17:33 They feared Yahweh, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
- Zephaniah 1:5 those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam,
- Exodus 20:3-5 “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
- Exodus 32:31 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
- 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
- 1 John 5:20-21 We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
- Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Exodus 32:1-4 When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- 1 Samuel 5:4-5 When they arose early on the following morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso was intact. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
- 2 Kings 17:41 So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.
- Ezekiel 43:8 in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door post beside my door post. There was a wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in my anger.
- Daniel 5:4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
- Daniel 5:23 but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
- Colossians 2:18-19 Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 20:23 Ye shall not make with me gods…
Exo 20:23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
Ver. 23. Ye shall not male with me gods.] Say we of such petty deities as that heathen did, Contemno minutulos istos deos, modo Iovem (Iehovam) mihi propitium habeam. I slight them all.
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 With me, i.e. to worship together with me; I…
With me, i.e. to worship together with me; I will allow no companion; or, to me, as it follows, unto you; and Exo 20:24, unto me; and the particle eth is sometimes used for el, or lamed, as 1Sa 22:14; 2Ki 22:14; or, for me, either to represent my person, by comparing this with the parallel place, Deu 4:15,16, or to worship me by, as it is apparent that the Israelites afterwards did intend to worship Jehovah in the golden calf, and therefore Aaron calls the feast of the calf a feast to Jehovah, Exo 32:5, and that with the approbation of the people, whom he then complied with, and durst not resist.
Gods, i.e. idols or images, to whom you may give the name and worship of gods,
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of silver, and consequently not of any other materials, as wood or stone: it is a synecdoche.
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 And if thou wilt make me an altar of…
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone,.... If they chose instead of an earthen one to make one of stone, as they might in rocky places, where they came, and in such an one where they now were, Mount Sinai, under which hill an altar was built, Exo 24:4,
thou shall not build it of hewn stone; which would require time and occasion expense, to hew and polish them in an artificial way; but it was to be built of rude and unpolished stones, just as they were taken out of the quarry, or found lying by the way, and which were laid up in an heap one upon another, and was done with little trouble, and without any ornament, and easily separated and thrown down, when become useless: the reason of this law, as given by Maimonides (w), is this,"because the idolaters of that time built their altars of hewn stones, therefore God forbad it, lest we should be like them, and that we might shun it in all things, he commanded the altar to be made of earth, as it is said, an altar of earth shalt thou make unto me; and if it could not be made without stones, that the stones should remain in their own natural form, and be neither hewn nor polished; as he after forbad a painted stone, and a plantation of trees by an altar; for in each of these there is one and the same intention and design, namely, that we might not worship him in the same manner in which idolaters used to worship their fictitious deities:"
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for if thou lift up thy tool upon it; or, thy sword (x); it signifies any tool or instrument made of iron as a sword is, and here such an one as is used in hewing of stone; which, if lifted up on the altar, or on any of the stones of which it is built, to strike and hew them with:
thou hast polluted it; and so made it unfit for use: how this should be done hereby is not easy to say, no good reason seems to be assignable for it but the will and pleasure of God; who so appointed it, and reckoned that a pollution, and would have it so thought by others, which with men is accounted ornamental; his thoughts and judgment are not as man's: the Targum of Jonathan is,"for if thou liftest up iron, of which a sword is made, upon a stone, thou wilt profane it;''the reason which the Misnic doctors (y) give, and Jarchi from them, is,"because iron was created to shorten the days of men, but the other was made to prolong the days of men: and therefore it cannot be just that that which shortens should be lifted up and agitated over that which prolongs:''but Maimonides gives a better reason of it, as Abarbinel understands him, which was to prevent persons making images in stones (z), which image making is the thing guarded against and forbidden in the context; but still better is that of Isaac Arama (a), that the hands of the artificer were to abstain from the stones of the altar, lest that good which men obtain of God at the altar should be attributed to any work of theirs: though, after all, it is right what Aben Ezra, says, that it does not belong to us to search after the reasons of the commands, at least not in too curious and bold a manner, and where God is silent and has not thought fit to give any.
(w) Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 45. (x) "gladium tuum", Montanus, Piscator, Cartwright. (y) Misnah Middot, c. 3. sect. 4. (z) Apud L'Empereur in Middot, ib. (a) Apud Rivet in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 23. Ye shall not make with me gods…
Verse 23. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver] The expressions here are very remarkable. Before it was said, Ye shall have no other gods BEFORE me, אל פני al panai, Ex 20:3. Here they are commanded, ye shall not make gods of silver or gold itti WITH me, as emblems or representatives of God, in order, as might be pretended, to keep these displays of his magnificence in memory; on the contrary, he would have only an altar of earth-of plain turf, on which they should offer those sacrifices by which they should commemorate their own guilt and the necessity of an atonement to reconcile themselves to God. See Clarke on Ex 20:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Make. Hebrew adds, "with me," ver. 3. This people…
Make. Hebrew adds, "with me," ver. 3. This people was prone to idolatry, and stood in need of having the first commandment often inculcated. (Menochius)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 23. Make with me — As if to place…
23. Make with me — As if to place by the side of me as images and representations of my nature.
Gods of silver — This is, for substance, a repetition of the second commandment. See notes above, on Exo_20:4. It receives a new emphasis from the fact that Jehovah himself had now spoken from heaven.
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 23. Cf. Exo_20:3-4 f.; and in the other codes…
23. Cf. Exo_20:3-4 f.; and in the other codes Exo_34:17 (J), Lev_19:4 (H), Deu_4:15-18; Deu_27:15.
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 (23) Ye shall not make with me gods of…
(23) Ye shall not make with me gods of silver.—The expression “make with me” is unusual, but does not seem to have any peculiar force. Gods of silver and gods of gold are specially forbidden, because it was to idolatry of this kind that the Israelites were specially inclined. The golden calf is no isolated phenomenon. Molten images of gods, generally of silver, sometimes of gold, were objects of worship to Israel throughout the ages which preceded the Captivity. Jeroboam set up molten images at Dan and Bethel (Kings 14:9; 2Ki_17:16). Baal was worshipped under the semblance of a molten image (2Ch_28:2) as were probably Ashtaroth, Chemosh, and Moloch. The animal worship of the Egyptians had no attractions for the Hebrews; they did not offer to images of stone or marble, like the Assyrians or the Greeks; much less was it their habit to “bow down to stocks,” like so many of the heathen nations around them. The “molten image,” generally completed by a certain amount of graving, was the form of idol which had most charms for them, and the more precious the material the more satisfied were they to worship it. (Comp. Isa_30:22; Isa_42:17; Jer_10:14; Hos_13:2, &c.). Occasionally indeed they overlaid wood or stone with plates of gold or silver, to produce an idol (Hab_2:19); but such images were at once less common and held in less account.
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 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver,…
Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, etc. This is a repetition, in part, of the second commandment, and can only be accounted for by the prohibition being specially needed. The first idea of the Israelites, when they considered that Moses had deserted them, was to make a golden calf for a god.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.