申命记 16:21

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

禁拜偶像與邪神“在你為耶和華你的　神築的祭壇旁邊，不可栽種甚麼樹木，作亞舍拉。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
你 为 耶 和 华 ─ 你 的 　 神 筑 坛 ， 不 可 在 坛 旁 栽 甚 麽 树 木 作 为 木 偶 。

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you; they must judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions, because that kind of payment makes wise people seem blind, and it changes the words of good people. ²⁰ Always do what is right so that you will live and always have the land the Lord your God is giving you. ²¹ Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God, ²² and do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 34:13, Judges 3:7, 1 Kings 14:15, 1 Kings 16:33, 2 Kings 17:16, 2 Kings 21:3, 2 Chronicles 33:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:33 - Beersheba Leviticus 26:1 - Ye shall Deuteronomy 12:4 - General 2 Kings 17:10 - groves

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thou shall not plant thee a grove of any trees,.... Of any sort of trees, as oaks or any other; not but that it was lawful to plant trees and groves of them, but not for a religious or idolatrous use: particularly

near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee; as the Heathens did near their altars, lest it should be thought to be done for a like superstitious and idolatrous use; which evil the Jews sometimes fell into in the times of wicked reigns, and which their good and pious kings removed and destroyed; see 2 Kings 18:4 and Hecataeus b, an Heathen historian, relates of the city of Jerusalem, that there were there no image, nor plantation, nor grove, nor any such thing.

b Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 4. p. 408.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These verses are closely connected in subject with the following chapter, and introduce certain directions for the administration of justice and the carrying on of the civil government of the people in Canaan. During the lifetime of Moses, he himself, especially inspired and guided by God, was sufficient, with the aid of the subordinate judges (compare Exodus 18:13 ff), for the duties in question. But now that Moses was to be withdrawn, and the people would soon be scattered up and down the land of Canaan, regular and permanent provision must be made for civil and social order and good government.

Deuteronomy 16:21

A grove ... - Render, Thou shalt not plant for thee any tree as an idol: literally as an Asherah,” “i. e.” an image of Astarte or Ashtaroth, the Phoenician goddess (compare Deuteronomy 7:5 note, Deuteronomy 7:13 note). The word is rendered “grove” by the King James Version also in Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3; Exodus 34:13; Judges 6:25, but cannot be maintained, for the word is connected with various verbs which are quite inapplicable to a grove. The wooden idol in question was the stem of a tree, stripped of its boughs, set upright in the ground, and rudely carved with emblems.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 16:21. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove, &c. — We have already seen that groves were planted about idol temples for the purpose of the obscene worship performed in them. (Deuteronomy 12:3; Deuteronomy 12:3.) On this account God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that any thing contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there. Every part of the Divine worship was publicly performed, for the purpose of general edification.