New King James Version
Exodus 34:13
13But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
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 Living Translation (NLT)Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.
Context of Exodus 34:13
11Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 14(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,
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 23:24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
- Deuteronomy 7:5But 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.
- Deuteronomy 12:2You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
- Judges 2:2And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?
- Judges 6:25Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;
- 2 Kings 18:4He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
- 2 Kings 23:14And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.
- 2 Chronicles 31:1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars—from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh—until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession.
- 2 Chronicles 34:3For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded 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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries