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Wednesday, November 5th, 2025
the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Geneva Bible

Exodus 34:13

But yee shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake their images in pieces, & cut downe their groues,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Alliances;   Company;   Fellowship;   Iconoclasm;   Jealousy;   Miscegenation;   Temptation;   Thompson Chain Reference - Awakenings and Religious Reforms;   Iconoclasm;   The Topic Concordance - Covenant;   Idolatry;   Marriage;   Obedience;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Altars;   Groves;   Idolatry;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Idol, Idolatry;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Treaty;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Destroy, Destruction;   Israel;   War, Holy War;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Asherah;   Grove;   High Place;   Idolatry;   League;   Samson;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Grove;   Jehoiakim;   Pentateuch;   Zipporah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   High Place;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Asherah;   Covenant;   Hexateuch;   Idolatry;   Law;   Moses;   Pillar;   Ten Commandments;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Altar ;   Israel, Israelite;   Numbers (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Sinai;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Rove;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Events of the Encampment;   Other Laws;   On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Images;   Law in the Old Testament;   Pillar;   Ten Commandments, the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Deuteronomy;   Law, Reading from the;   Pillar;   Sidra;   Stone and Stone-Worship;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
King James Version
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Lexham English Bible
Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles.
New Century Version
Destroy their altars, break their stone pillars, and cut down their Asherah idols.
New English Translation
Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles.
Amplified Bible
"But you shall tear down and destroy their [pagan] altars, smash in pieces their [sacred] pillars (obelisks, images) and cut down their Asherim
New American Standard Bible
"But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones, and cut down their Asherim
Legacy Standard Bible
But rather, you are to tear down their altars and shatter their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim
Contemporary English Version
Instead, you must destroy their altars and tear down the sacred poles they use in the worship of the goddess Asherah.
Complete Jewish Bible
Rather, you are to demolish their altars, smash their standing-stones and cut down their sacred poles;
Darby Translation
but ye shall demolish their altars, shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs.
Easy-to-Read Version
So destroy their altars, break the stones they worship, and cut down their idols.
English Standard Version
You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
George Lamsa Translation
But you must destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their idols.
Good News Translation
Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah.
Christian Standard Bible®
Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Literal Translation
But you shall cut down their altars, break their pillars, and you shall cut off their Asherahs.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but their alters shalt thou ouerthrowe, & breake downe their goddes, and rote out their groaues:
American Standard Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim
Bible in Basic English
But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But ouerthrowe their aulters, and breake their images, and cut downe their groues.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim.
King James Version (1611)
But ye shall destroy their altars, breake their images, and cut downe their groues.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Ye shall destroy their altars, and break in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their groves, and the graven images of their gods ye shall burn with fire.
English Revised Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim:
Berean Standard Bible
Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But also distrie thou `the auteris of hem, breke the ymagis, and kitte doun the woodis;
Young's Literal Translation
for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down;
Update Bible Version
But you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim.
Webster's Bible Translation
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.
World English Bible
but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
New King James Version
But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
New Living Translation
Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.
New Life Bible
Instead you are to tear down their altars, break their objects of worship, and cut down their false gods.
New Revised Standard
You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For their altars, shall ye smash, And their pillars, shall ye shiver, - And their sacred-stems, shall ye fell.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But destroy their altars, break their statues and cut down their groves:
Revised Standard Version
You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their Ashe'rim
THE MESSAGE
"Tear down their altars, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their fertility poles. Don't worship any other god. God —his name is The-Jealous-One—is a jealous God. Be careful that you don't make a covenant with the people who live in the land and take up with their sex-and-religion life, join them in meals at their altars, marry your sons to their women, women who take up with any convenient god or goddess and will get your sons to do the same thing.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim

Contextual Overview

10 And he answered, Behold, I will make a couenant before all thy people, and will do marueiles, such as haue not bene done in all the worlde, neyther in all nations: and all the people among whom thou art, shal see the worke of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Keepe diligently that which I commande thee this day: Beholde, I will cast out before thee the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hiuites, and the Iebusites. 12 Take heede to thy selfe, that thou make no compact with ye inhabitantes of the land whither thou goest, least they be the cause of ruine among you: 13 But yee shall ouerthrowe their altars, and breake their images in pieces, & cut downe their groues, 14 (For thou shalt bow downe to none other god, because the Lord, whose Name is Ielous, is a ielous God) 15 Lest thou make a compact with the inhabitantes of the lande, and when they goe a whoring after their gods, and doe sacrifice vnto their gods, some man call thee, & thou eate of his sacrifice: 16 And least thou take of their daughters vnto thy sonnes, and their daughters goe a whoring after their gods, and make thy sonnes goe a whoring after their gods. 17 Thou shalt make thee no gods of metall.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye shall: Exodus 23:24, Deuteronomy 7:5, Deuteronomy 7:25, Deuteronomy 7:26, Deuteronomy 12:2, Deuteronomy 12:3, Judges 2:2, Judges 6:25, 2 Kings 18:4, 2 Kings 23:14, 2 Chronicles 31:1, 2 Chronicles 34:3, 2 Chronicles 34:4

images: Heb. statutes

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 16:21 - General Judges 3:7 - the groves 1 Kings 14:15 - beyond the river 1 Kings 16:33 - made a grove 2 Kings 17:10 - they set 2 Chronicles 14:3 - brake

Cross-References

Genesis 34:18
Nowe their wordes pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamors sonne.
Genesis 34:20
Then Hamor and Shechem his Sonne went vnto the gate of their citie, and communed with the men of their citie, saying,
Genesis 34:23
Shall not their flockes and their substance and all their cattell be ours? onely let vs consent herein vnto them, and they will dwell with vs.
Genesis 34:24
And vnto Hamor, and Shechem his sonne hearkened all that went out of the gate of his citie: and all the men children were circumcised, euen all that went out of the gate of his citie.
Genesis 34:26
They slewe also Hamor and Shechem his sonne wt the edge of the sword, & tooke Dinah out of Shechems house, and went their way.
Genesis 34:27
Againe the other sonnes of Iaakob came vpon the dead, and spoyled the citie, because they had defiled their sister.
Genesis 34:28
They tooke their sheepe & their beeues, and their asses, and whatsoeuer was in the citie, and in the fieldes.
Genesis 34:29
Also they caryed away captiue & spoyled all their goods, and all their children and their wiues, and all that was in the houses.
Judges 15:3
Then Samson saide vnto them, Nowe am I more blamelesse then the Philistims: therefore will I doe them displeasure.
Job 13:4
For in deede ye forge lyes, and all you are physitions of no value.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But ye shall destroy their altars,.... On which they had sacrificed to their idols; since, if they were allowed to continue, they might be temptations to offer sacrifice thereon, contrary to the command of God:

break their images: of gold or silver, wood or stone, which they made for themselves, and worshipped as deities; seeing if these continued, the sight of them might lead to the worship of them, and so bring under the divine displeasure, as a breach of the command of God given them:

and cut down their groves; which were clusters of trees, where they had their temples and their idols, and did service to them, and where, besides idolatry, many impurities were committed. Such places were originally used by good men for devotion, being shady and solitary, but when abused to superstitious and idolatrous uses, were forbidden. It is said n, the word for "grove" is general, and includes every tree they serve, or plant, for an idol.

n R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 72. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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” (Exo. 20–23; see 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 supposed that what the law commands is the destruction of groves dedicated to the worship of false deities Judges 6:25; 2 Kings 18:4; but inasmuch as the worship of asherah is found associated with that of Astarte, or Ashtoreth Judges 2:13; Jdg 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4, it seems probable that while Astarte was the personal name of the goddess, the asherah was a symbol of her, probably in some one of her characters, made in wood in some conventional form.

Exodus 34:15-16

An expansion of Exodus 34:12. The unfaithfulness of the nation to its covenant with Yahweh is here for the first time spoken of as a breach of the marriage bond. The metaphor is, in any case, a natural one, but it seems to gain point, if we suppose it to convey an allusion to the abominations connected with pagan worship, such as are spoken of in Numbers 25:1-3.

Exodus 34:21

See Exodus 20:9; Exodus 23:12. There is here added to the commandment a particular caution respecting those times of year when the land calls for most labor. The old verb “to ear” (i. e. to plow) is genuine English.

Exodus 34:24

Neither shall any man desire etc. - Intended to encourage such as might fear the consequences of obeying the divine law in attending to their religious duties. Compare Proverbs 16:7.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 34:13. Ye 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 23:24".


 
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