But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Parallel translations
- WEB but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;
- BSB Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
- NKJV But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
- NASB But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones, and cut down their Asherim
- NLT Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel must tear down the Canaanites' altars, pillars, and Asherah poles. False worship is to be thoroughly removed, not tolerated.
Overview
God commands the destruction of the apparatus of pagan worship to prevent Israel from adopting it. This radical removal reflects how seriously God takes idolatry. While the church's warfare is now spiritual, the principle remains that believers must decisively put away everything that rivals God (1 John 5:21; Colossians 3:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Kgs 18:4He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
- Deut 7:5But 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.
- Deut 7:25–26The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
- Exod 23:24Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
- Deut 12:2–3Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:
- Deut 16:21Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
- Judg 6:25And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:
- 2 Chr 34:3–4For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
- 2 Chr 31:1Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
- Judg 2:2And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
- 2 Kgs 23:14And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 34:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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