Exodus 34:13

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 thee this day: behold, I will drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12Take heed to thyself, that thou make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which thou shalt come, lest it be a snare in the midst of thee; but ye shall demolish their altars, shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs. 14For thou shalt worship no other God; for Jehovah — Jealous is his name — is a jealous God; 15lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and then, when they go a whoring after their gods, and sacrifice unto their gods, thou be invited, and eat of their sacrifice,

Exodus 34:13 word by word

כִּ֤י אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹתָם֙ תִּתֹּצ֔וּן וְאֶת־מַצֵּבֹתָ֖ם תְּשַׁבֵּר֑וּן וְאֶת־אֲשֵׁרָ֖יו תִּכְרֹתֽוּן׃Read the interlinear

• altarsמִזְבֵּחַmizbêach · altarH4196
• shatterשָׁבַרshâbar · to breakH7665
• downנָתַץnâthats · to tearH5422

Cross-references for Exodus 34:13

• Exodus 23:24Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their deeds; but thou shalt utterly destroy them, and utterly shatter their statues.
• Deuteronomy 7:5But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall break down their altars, and shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs, and burn their graven images with fire.
• Deuteronomy 12:2Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall dispossess have served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree;
• Judges 2:2ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not hearkened unto my voice. Why have ye done this?
• Judges 6:25And it came to pass the same night, that Jehovah said to him, Take the young bullock, which thy father hath, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the Asherah that is by it;
• 2 Kings 18:4He removed the high places, and broke the columns, and cut down the Asherahs, and broke in pieces the serpent of brass that Moses had made; for to those days the children of Israel burned incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
• 2 Kings 23:14And he broke in pieces the columns, and cut down the Asherahs, and filled their place with the bones of men.
• 2 Chronicles 31:1And when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the columns, and hewed down the Asherahs, and demolished the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. And all the children of Israel returned every man to his possession, into their cities.
• 2 Chronicles 34:3And 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 Asherahs, and the graven images, and the molten 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

• Alliances
• Company
• Fellowship
• Iconoclasm
• Jealousy
• Miscegenation
• Temptation

In the dictionaries

• Abundant
• Asherah
• Commandment
• Cut
• Desire
• Goodness
• Grove
• High place
• Idolatry
• Keep

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