But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones, and cut down their Asherim
Parallel translations
- WEB but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;
- KJV But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
- 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
- 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 broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
- Deut 7:5But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
- Deut 7:25–26You 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.
- Exod 23:24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
- Deut 12:2–3You 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.
- Deut 16:21You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves.
- Judg 6:25That 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.
- 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, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images.
- 2 Chr 31:1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
- Judg 2:2You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this?
- 2 Kgs 23:14He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.
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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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