Isaiah 2:20

2:20 At that time ¹  men will throw

their silver and gold idols,

which they made for themselves to worship, ² 

into the caves where rodents and bats live, ³ 

Isaiah 30:22

30:22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols ⁴ 

and your gold-plated images. ⁵ 

You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag,

saying to them, “Get out!”

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 ⁶  to the Lord your God.

Ezekiel 36:25

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ⁷  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

Hosea 14:8

14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ⁸  with idols anymore!

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like ⁹  a luxuriant cypress tree; ¹⁰ 

your fruitfulness comes from me! ¹¹ 

¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

² tn Or “bow down to.”

³ tn Heb “to the shrews and to the bats.” On the meaning of חֲפַרְפָּרָה (khafarparah, “shrew”), see HALOT 341 s.v. חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The BHS text as it stands (לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת, perot lakhpor), makes no sense. Based on Theodotion’s transliteration and a similar reading in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, most scholars suggest that the MT mistakenly divided a noun (a hapax legomenon) that should be translated “moles,” “shrews,” or “rodents.”

⁴ tn Heb “the platings of your silver idols.”

⁵ tn Heb “the covering of your gold image.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

⁸ tn The Hebrew expression מַה־לִּי עוֹד (mah-li ’od) is a formula of repudiation/emphatic denial that God has anything in common with idols: “I want to have nothing to do with […] any more!” Cf., e.g., Judg 11:12; 2 Sam 16:10; 19:23; 1 Kgs 17:18; 2 Kgs 3:13; 2 Chr 35:21; Jer 2:18; Ps 50:16; BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d.(c).

⁹ tn The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity, as in the majority of English versions (including KJV).

¹⁰ tn Cf. KJV “a green fir tree”; NIV, NCV “a green pine tree”; NRSV “an evergreen cypress.”

¹¹ tn Heb “your fruit is found in me”; NRSV “your faithfulness comes from me.”