1 Kings 22:43

22:43 He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. ¹  (22:44) ²  However, the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

Leviticus 17:3-6

17:3 “Blood guilt ³  will be accounted to any man ⁴  from the house of Israel ⁵  who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, ⁶  17:4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent ⁷  to present it as ⁸  an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. ⁹  17:5 This is so that ¹⁰  the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field ¹¹  to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord. 17:6 The priest is to splash ¹²  the blood on the altar ¹³  of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 26:30

26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ¹⁴  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ¹⁵  I will abhor you. ¹⁶ 

Deuteronomy 12:2-5

12:2 You must by all means destroy ¹⁷  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ¹⁸  12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹⁹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ²⁰  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. 12:4 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they worship. 12:5 But you must seek only the place he ²¹  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ²²  and you must go there.

Deuteronomy 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ²³  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 33:17

33:17 May the firstborn of his bull bring him honor,

and may his horns be those of a wild ox;

with them may he gore all peoples,

all the far reaches of the earth.

They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, ²⁵ 

and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

[22:43]  ¹ tn Heb “he walked in all the way of Asa his father and did not turn from it, doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.”

[22:43]  ² sn Beginning with 22:43b, the verse numbers through 22:53 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), because 22:43b in the English Bible = 22:44 in the Hebrew text. The remaining verses in the chapter differ by one, with 22:44-53 ET = 22:45-54 HT.

[17:3]  ³ tn The complex wording of vv. 3-4 requires stating “blood guilt” at the beginning of v. 3 even though it is not mentioned until the middle of v. 4. The Hebrew text has simply “blood,” but in this case it refers to the illegitimate shedding of animal blood, similar to the shedding of the blood of an innocent human being (Deut 19:10, etc.). In order for it to be legitimate the animal must be slaughtered at the tabernacle and its blood handled by the priests in the prescribed way (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:2, 17; 4:5-7; 7:26-27, etc.; cf. vv. 10-16 below for more details).

[17:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 22:18, etc.). See the note on Lev 15:2.

[17:3]  ⁵ tn The original LXX adds “or the sojourners who sojourn in your midst” (cf. Lev 16:29, etc., and note esp. 17:8, 10, and 13 below).

[17:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “or who slaughters from outside to the camp.”

[17:4]  ⁷ tn Smr and LXX add after “tent of meeting” the following: “to make it a burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord for your acceptance as a soothing aroma, and slaughters it outside, and at the doorway of the tent of meeting has not brought it.”

[17:4]  ⁸ tc Smr includes the suffix “it,” which is needed in any case in the translation to conform to English style.

[17:4]  ⁹ sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean (1) that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, (2) that he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits, or (3) that his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation). See also the note on Lev 7:20.

[17:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “So that which.”

[17:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on the faces of the field.”

[17:6]  ¹² tn For the translation “splash” see the note on Lev 1:5.

[17:6]  ¹³ tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew סָבִיב [saviv, “all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).

[26:30]  ¹⁴ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ¹⁵ tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[12:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

[12:2]  ¹⁸ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

[12:3]  ¹⁹ sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.

[12:3]  ²⁰ sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.

[12:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[12:5]  ²² tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

[12:2]  ²³ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

[12:2]  ²⁴ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

[33:17]  ²⁵ sn Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph who became founders of the two tribes into which Joseph’s descendants were split (Gen 48:19-20). Jacob’s blessing granted favored status to Ephraim; this is probably why Ephraim is viewed here as more numerous than Manasseh.