There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god.
Parallel translations
- WEB There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
- KJV There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
- NKJV There shall be no foreign god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
- NASB “There shall be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship a foreign god.
- NLT You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.
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
God commands that there be no strange or foreign god among His people. Exclusive devotion to the LORD is the foundation of the covenant.
Overview
This restates the first commandment, forbidding any rival to the LORD (Exod. 20:3). Idolatry is the root sin from which Israel's troubles flow. The call to worship God alone remains central for God's people, fulfilled in undivided devotion to the one true God revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 43:12I alone decreed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God.
- Deut 32:12The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.
- 1 Cor 8:5–6For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),
- Exod 20:3–5You shall have no other gods before Me.
- Mal 2:11Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
- Deut 6:14Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
- Ps 44:20If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 81:9 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.