New Living Translation
Exodus 34:13
13Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut 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
11But listen carefully to everything I command you today. Then I will go ahead of you and drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 12“Be very careful never to make a treaty with the people who live in the land where you are going. If you do, you will follow their evil ways and be trapped. Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles. 14You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. 15“You must not make a treaty of any kind with the people living in the land. They lust after their gods, offering sacrifices to them. They will invite you to join them in their sacrificial meals, and you will go with them.
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 must not worship the gods of these nations or serve them in any way or imitate their evil practices. Instead, you must utterly destroy them and smash their sacred pillars.
- Deuteronomy 7:5This 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.
- Deuteronomy 12:2“When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods—high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Judges 2:2For your part, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. But you disobeyed my command. Why did you do this?
- Judges 6:25That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.
- 2 Kings 18:4He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan.
- 2 Kings 23:14He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. Then he desecrated these places by scattering human bones over them.
- 2 Chronicles 31:1When the festival ended, the Israelites who attended went to all the towns of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, and they smashed all the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and removed the pagan shrines and altars. After this, the Israelites returned to their own towns and homes.
- 2 Chronicles 34:3During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and 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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