Exodus 23:24
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You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This chapter continues and concludes the acts that passed in the first session (if I may so call it) upon mount Sinai. Here are, I. Some laws of universal obligation, relating especially to the ninth commandment, against bearing false witness (Exo 23:1), and giving false judgment (Exo 23:2, Exo 23:3, Exo 23:6-8). Also a law of doing good to our enemies (Exo 23:4, Exo 23:5), and not oppressing strangers (Exo 23:9). II. Some laws peculiar to the Jews. The sabbatical year (Exo 23:10, Exo 23:11), the three annual feasts (Exo 23:14-17), with some laws pertaining thereto. III. Gracious promises of the completing of the mercy God had begun for them, upon condition of their obedience. That God would conduct them through the wilderness (Exo 23:20-24), that he would prosper all they had (Exo 23:25, Exo 23:26), that he would put them in possession of Canaan (Exo 23:27-31). But they must not mingle themselves with the nations (Exo 23:32, Exo 23:33).
Open source ↗23:24 In Canaanite worship, sacred pillars were erected to represent the deities. Sometimes they would have a human likeness carved on them.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
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You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.
Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.
You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.
So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.
And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.