for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Parallel translations
- WEB They abandoned Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
- KJV And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
- NKJV They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
- NASB They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
- NLT They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.
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
They abandon the LORD and serve Baal and the Ashtoreth. It matters as a stark summary of their idolatry.
Overview
The verse names the specific deities, Baal and the Ashtaroth, the male and female Canaanite gods of storm and fertility. The blunt repetition of 'abandoned the LORD' emphasizes the totality of their defection. Such worship involved immoral and degrading practices, showing how forsaking God leads to bondage rather than freedom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Judg 10:6And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
- Ps 106:36They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
- Judg 3:7So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
- 1 Cor 10:20–22No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Judg 2:11And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- 1 Sam 31:10They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
- 2 Kgs 23:13The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Kgs 11:33For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
- 1 Cor 8:5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),
- 1 Kgs 11:5Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 2:13 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.