Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 7:5
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, giving them covenant instructions before they cross into Canaan. He commands the nation to physically dismantle the religious structures of the displaced peoples to prevent their children from turning to other gods.
The words — The Hebrew text emphasizes תִּתֹּצוּ (ti.to.tzu), translating literally as "you will break down," and תְּשַׁבֵּ֑רוּ (te.sha.be.ru), meaning "you will shatter," which specify the required physical destruction of foreign cultic objects.
The thread — The text's command to demolish altars and sacred stones appears in Exodus 23:24 and Exodus 34:13, and matches Deuteronomy 12:2, which orders the complete removal of all places where displaced nations served their gods.
Why it lands — The passage demands the immediate and total eradication of physical idolatry to maintain exclusive covenant loyalty to Yahweh. It requires readers to take concrete action against competing worship systems rather than tolerate them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
Cross-references
- Exodus 23:24 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.
- Exodus 34:13 Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
- Deuteronomy 12:2 Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Leviticus 26:1 “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 7:25 You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
- Deuteronomy 16:22 and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
- Judges 6:25 On that very night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old, tear down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
- 2 Kings 23:6 He brought the Asherah pole from the house of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
- Exodus 32:20 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.