Christian Standard Bible
Exodus 34:13
13Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Exodus 34:13 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
- New International Version (NIV)Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.
- English Standard Version (ESV)You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
- New King James Version (NKJV)But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
Context of Exodus 34:13
11Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 12Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you. Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles. 14Because the Lord is jealous for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god. He is a jealous God. 15“Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
Read all of Exodus 34Exodus 34:13 word by word
כִּ֤י אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹתָם֙ תִּתֹּצ֔וּן וְאֶת־מַצֵּבֹתָ֖ם תְּשַׁבֵּר֑וּן וְאֶת־אֲשֵׁרָ֖יו תִּכְרֹתֽוּן׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Exodus 34:13
- Exodus 23:24Do not bow in worship to their gods, and do not serve them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces.
- Deuteronomy 7:5Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images.
- Deuteronomy 12:2Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods — on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Judges 2:2You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What have you done?
- Judges 6:25On that very night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old. Then tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
- 2 Kings 18:4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for until then the Israelites were burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan.
- 2 Kings 23:14He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, then filled their places with human bones.
- 2 Chronicles 31:1When all this was completed, all Israel who had attended went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, to the last one. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own possession.
- 2 Chronicles 34:3In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images.
Commentaries on Exodus 34:13
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 13Ye shall destroy their images - See the subjects of this and all the following verses, to Exodus 34:28, treated at large in the notes on Exodus 23 (note).Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12-27Verses 12-27 The precepts contained in these verses are, for the most part, identical in substance with some of those which follow the Ten Commandments and are recorded in “the Book of the covenant” (Exodus 24:7). Exodus 34:13 Cut down their groves - This is the first reference to what is commonly known as grove-worship. The original word for “grove” in this connection אשׁרה 'ăshêrāh is different from that so rendered in Genesis 21:33. Our translators…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 10-17Verses 10-17 The Israelites are commanded to destroy every monument of idolatry, however curious or costly; to refuse all alliance, friendship, or marriage with idolaters, and all idolatrous feasts; and they were reminded not with idolaters, and all idolatrous feats; and they were reminded not to repeat the crime of making molten images. Jealously is called the rage of a man, Pr 6:34; but in God it is holy and just displeasure. Those cannot worship God…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 13Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess who would continue to be a temptation throughout Israel’s history (see, for example, Judges 6:25; 1 Kings 14:15; 2 Kings 23:15). The Aherah poles seem to have been fertility symbols.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 8-268-26. Moses bowed ... and worshipped--In the East, people bow the head to royalty, and are silent when it passes by, while in the West, they take off their hats and shout.Read the comment
Topics related to Exodus 34:13
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Exodus 34
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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