Bible Strands
Leviticus 26:30
I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Israel within the covenant curse sequence, positioned between the siege famine warning of Leviticus 26:29 and the desolation of cities and sanctuaries in Leviticus 26:31.
The words — הִשְׁמַדְתִּי (hish.mad.ti) translates literally as "I will destroy," and חַמָּנֵי (cha.ma.nei) means "incense altars."
The thread — This judgment on idolatrous sites runs through 2 Kings 23:20, where altars are defiled with bones, and Ezekiel 6:3, where the Lord pronounces destruction on the mountains of Israel.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to recognize that persistent idolatry systematically destroys the infrastructure of false worship and provokes divine rejection.
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
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 23:20 On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 27:9 Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
- Ezekiel 6:3 You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.
- Ezekiel 6:13 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
- 2 Chronicles 34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.
- Leviticus 20:23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.
- Leviticus 26:11 And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.
- Leviticus 26:15 and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,
- 1 Kings 13:2 And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
- 2 Kings 23:8 Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which was to the left of the city gate.