Exodus 34:13
<< Exodus 34:13 >>
New International Version (©1984)
Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.

English Standard Version (©2001)
You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
But tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, and cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their idol poles:

American King James Version
But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

American Standard Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim;

Douay-Rheims Bible
But destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their groves:

Darby Bible Translation
but ye shall demolish their altars, shatter their statues, and hew down their Asherahs.

English Revised Version
but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye 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;

Young's Literal Translation
for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down;

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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; Judges 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.


Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

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 (note).


Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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.


Geneva Study Bible

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their {d} groves:

(d) Which pleasant places they chose for their idols.


King James Translators' Notes

images: Heb. statues


Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:10-17 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 aright, who do not worship him only.


Exodus 23:24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.
Deuteronomy 7:5 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.
Deuteronomy 12:3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
Deuteronomy 16:21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God,
Judges 2:2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?
Judges 6:25 That 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.
Judges 6:26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."
1 Kings 14:15 And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles.
2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
2 Chronicles 14:3 He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.
2 Chronicles 15:16 King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
2 Chronicles 17:6 His heart was devoted to the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.
2 Chronicles 24:18 They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 31:1 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.
2 Chronicles 33:19 His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself--all are written in the records of the seers.
2 Chronicles 34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images.
Isaiah 17:8 They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.
Isaiah 27:9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
Jeremiah 17:2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
Micah 5:14 I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles and demolish your cities.

Altars Asherah Asherahs Asherim Ashe'rim Break Broken Cut Dash Demolish Destroy Groves Hew Images Overturned Pieces Pillars Poles Rather Sacred Shatter Shiver Shrines Smash Standing Statues Stones Tear


But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

ye shall Ex 23:24 De 7:5,25,26 12:2,3 Jud 2:2 6:25 2Ki 18:4 23:14 2Ch 31:1 34:3,4

images. Heb. statutes

Exodus Chapter 34 Verse 13

Alphabetical: altars and are Asherah Asherim Break But cut down pillars poles rather sacred smash stones tear their to you

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