Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy ¹  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ²  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 8:19

8:19 Now if you forget the Lord your God at all ³  and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated.

Deuteronomy 11:28

11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention ⁴  to his ⁵  commandments and turn from the way I am setting before ⁶  you today to pursue ⁷  other gods you have not known.

Deuteronomy 12:3

12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ⁸  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ⁹  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Deuteronomy 28:36

28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ¹⁰  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.

[7:16]  ¹ tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”

[7:16]  ² tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[8:19]  ³ tn Heb “if forgetting, you forget.” The infinitive absolute is used for emphasis; the translation indicates this with the words “at all” (cf. KJV).

[11:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “do not listen to,” that is, do not obey.

[11:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “am commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).

[11:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “walk after”; NIV “by following”; NLT “by worshiping.” This is a violation of the first commandment, the most serious of the covenant violations (Deut 5:6-7).

[12:3]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

[28:36]  ⁹ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”