Deuteronomy 7:5
7:5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars,
1 cut down their sacred Asherah poles,
2 and burn up their idols.
Deuteronomy 7:25
7:25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent
3 to the
Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 9:21
9:21 As for your sinful thing
4 that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,
5 ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.
Deuteronomy 9:2
9:2 They include the Anakites,
6 a numerous
7 and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”
Deuteronomy 23:6
23:6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come.
Deuteronomy 23:15
Purity in the Treatment of the Nonprivileged
23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. 8
1 sn Sacred pillars. The Hebrew word (מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) denotes a standing pillar, usually made of stone. Its purpose was to mark the presence of a shrine or altar thought to have been visited by deity. Though sometimes associated with pure worship of the Lord (Gen 28:18, 22; 31:13; 35:14; Exod 24:4), these pillars were usually associated with pagan cults and rituals (Exod 23:24; 34:13; Deut 12:3; 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 17:10; Hos 3:4; 10:1; Jer 43:13).
2 sn Sacred Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
3 tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abhorrent; detestable”) describes anything detestable to the Lord because of its innate evil or inconsistency with his own nature and character. Frequently such things (or even persons) must be condemned to annihilation (חֵרֶם, kherem) lest they become a means of polluting or contaminating others (cf. Deut 13:17; 20:17-18). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:315.
4 tn Heb “your sin.” This is a metonymy in which the effect (sin) stands for the cause (the metal calf).
5 tn Heb “burned it with fire.”
6 sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.
7 tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).
8 tn The Hebrew text includes “from his master,” but this would be redundant in English style.