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

11Obey the commands that I am giving you today. Then I will chase out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as you move into the land. 12Do not make any agreements with those people in the land where you are going. If you become their friends, they would teach you to do wrong things. Instead, you must knock down their altars. Destroy the special stones that are their idols. Cut down their Asherah poles. 14Do not worship any other god instead of me. I am the Lord and I want you to belong to me alone. 15Be careful not to make an agreement with the people who live in that land. They have turned away to worship their own gods. They offer sacrifices to their gods. When they do that, they may ask you to join with them. Then you will eat the food that they have offered to their gods.

Exodus 34:13 word by word

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

Words taken from the KJV.

• But ye shall destroyנָתַץnâthats · to tearH5422
• their altarsמִזְבֵּחַmizbêach · altarH4196
• breakשָׁבַרshâbar · to breakH7665
• their imagesמַצֵּבָהmatstsêbâh · pillarH4676
• and cut downכָּרַתkârath · to cut: cutH3772
• their grovesאֲשֵׁרָה'ăshêrâh 'ăshêyrâh · AsherahH842

Cross-references for Exodus 34:13

• Exodus 23:24Do not worship their gods. Do not serve them. Do not copy the evil things that these people do. Destroy their idols and break their special stones into pieces.
• Deuteronomy 7:5This is what you must do to the people of those nations: Break their altars and their stone pillars into pieces. Cut down their Asherah poles. Burn their idols with fire.
• Deuteronomy 12:2You will chase out the nations who live there. Then you must destroy completely all the places where those people worship their gods. Those places are on the tops of mountains and hills, and under big green trees.
• Judges 2:2I told you not to make any agreement with the people who live in this land. I told you to destroy the altars where they worship their gods. But you have not done as I told you. Why have you not obeyed me?
• Judges 6:25On the same night, the Lord said to Gideon, ‘Take your father's bull from among his animals. Also take a second bull, one that is seven years old. Use them to pull down your father's altar to Baal. Also cut down the Asherah pole that is there.
• 2 Kings 18:4He removed the altars on the hills. He knocked down the stone pillars that people worshipped and he cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made. Until then, the Israelites had burned incense as an offering to it. It was called Nehushtan.
• 2 Kings 23:14Josiah broke the stone pillars that people worshipped into small pieces. He cut down the Asherah poles. He covered the ground where they had been with human bones.
• 2 Chronicles 31:1The Passover festival finished. Then the Israelites who were there went to all the towns in Judah. They knocked down the stone pillars that people worshipped. They also cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed all the altars and places for worship on the hills. They did that everywhere in Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. After they finished, all the Israelites returned to their homes in their own towns.
• 2 Chronicles 34:3When Josiah had been king for eight years, he was still a young man. At that time he began to worship God, as his ancestor David had done. When he had been king for 12 years, he started to remove the places in Jerusalem and in all Judah where people worshipped false gods. He removed the altars on the hills, the Asherah poles, the idols and the images of false gods.

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