New International Version
Deuteronomy 7:5
5This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.
Deuteronomy 7:5 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
- English Standard Version (ESV)But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
- New King James Version (NKJV)But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
- New Living Translation (NLT)This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols.
Context of Deuteronomy 7:5
3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
Read all of Deuteronomy 7Deuteronomy 7:5 word by word
כִּֽי־אִם־כֹּ֤ה תַעֲשׂוּ֙ לָהֶ֔ם מִזְבְּחֹתֵיהֶ֣ם תִּתֹּ֔צוּ וּמַצֵּבֹתָ֖ם תְּשַׁבֵּ֑רוּ וַאֲשֵֽׁירֵהֶם֙ תְּגַדֵּע֔וּן וּפְסִילֵיהֶ֖ם תִּשְׂרְפ֥וּן בָּאֵֽשׁ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- But thus shall ye dealעָשָׂה‛âώâh · to make: doH6213
- with them; ye shall destroyנָתַץnâthats · to tearH5422
- their altarsמִזְבֵּחַmizbêach · altarH4196
- and break downשָׁבַרshâbar · to breakH7665
- their imagesמַצֵּבָהmatstsêbâh · pillarH4676
- and cut downגָּדַעgâda‛ · to cut down/offH1438
- their grovesאֲשֵׁרָה'ăshêrâh 'ăshêyrâh · AsherahH842
- and burnשָׂרַףώâraph · to burnH8313
- their graven imagesפָּסִילpesîyl · idolH6456
- with fireאֵשׁ'êsh · fireH784
Cross-references for Deuteronomy 7:5
- Deuteronomy 12:2Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
- Exodus 23:24Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.
- Exodus 34:13Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.
- 2 Kings 23:6He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.
- Deuteronomy 16:22and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God hates.
- Leviticus 26:1“ ‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.
- Judges 6:25That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
- Deuteronomy 7:25The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.
- Deuteronomy 9:21Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
- Exodus 32:20And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
Commentaries on Deuteronomy 7:5
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 1-11Verses 1-11 See Deuteronomy 6:10 note. Deuteronomy 7:5 Their groves - Render, their idols of wood: the reference is to the wooden trunk used as a representation of Ashtaroth; see Deuteronomy 7:13 and Exodus 34:13 note. Deuteronomy 7:7 The fewest of all people - God chose for Himself Israel, when as yet but a single family, or rather a single person, Abraham; though there were already numerous nations and powerful kingdoms in the earth. Increase…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 5Engraved stone pillars called stelae usually represented pagan male gods. People commonly found these sacred pillars at shrines dedicated to Baal. Asherah poles, usually made of wood, represented Canaanite fertility goddesses, especially Asherah, the mother of the gods. These shrines might have developed as stylized sacred trees associated with fertility (see study note on 12:2).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2-62-6. thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them--This relentless doom of extermination which God denounced against those tribes of Canaan cannot be reconciled with the attributes of the divine character, except on the assumption that their gross idolatry and enormous wickedness left no reasonable hope of their repentance and amendment. If they were to be swept away like the antediluvians or the people of Sodom…Read the comment
Topics related to Deuteronomy 7:5
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Deuteronomy 7
- 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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