Bible Strands
Micah 5:13
I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses the people of Israel in a prophetic oracle concerning the removal of idolatrous practices. The declaration follows the cutting off of sorceries and precedes the uprooting of Asherah poles and the demolition of cities.
The words — The Hebrew verb וְ/הִכְרַתּ֧י (ve./hikh.ra.Ti) means "and I will cut off," paired with פְסִילֶ֛י/ךָ (fe.si.Lei./kha), literally "your carved images." These terms describe the physical removal of manufactured objects of worship.
The thread — This pattern appears in Isaiah 2:8, which records the land being full of idols and people bowing to the work of their hands. It also aligns with Ezekiel 6:9 and Ezekiel 36:25, where God addresses the removal of idolatrous impurities and the grief caused by false worship among the nations.
Why it lands — The text commands the cessation of bowing down to the work of one's own hands. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment targets self-made religious substitutes before any subsequent cleansing or restoration.
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
Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 6:9 Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
- Ezekiel 36:25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
- Isaiah 2:8 Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
- Isaiah 17:7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
- Ezekiel 37:23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.
- Hosea 2:16 In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’
- Hosea 14:3 Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”
- Hosea 14:8 O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.
- Zechariah 13:2 And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.