Bible Strands
Psalms 106:20
They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the Israelite community to recount their rebellion at Mount Horeb, immediately following their worship of a molten calf and preceding their forgetting of God as their Savior.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיַּמִּירוּ (va.ya.mi.ru) translates literally as “they exchanged,” paired with כְּבוֹדָם (ke.voda.m), meaning “their glory,” to denote a deliberate transaction of honor for a crafted form.
The thread — The text’s description of trading divine glory for a created image aligns with Jeremiah 2:11, which questions Israel’s exchange of their Glory for useless idols, and echoes the Exodus 20:4 prohibition against making images of anything in creation.
Why it lands — The verse states that the people actively traded God’s glory for a grass-eating ox image, requiring the reader to identify and reject any modern substitution of finite things for divine honor.
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
Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
- Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
- Romans 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,
- Psalms 89:17 For You are the glory of their strength, and by Your favor our horn is exalted.
- Isaiah 40:18 To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?