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 ¹  to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 9:21

9:21 As for your sinful thing ²  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ³  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

Deuteronomy 12:31

12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ⁴  For everything that is abhorrent ⁵  to him, ⁶  everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

Deuteronomy 13:16

13:16 You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ⁷  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ⁸  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

[7:25]  ¹ 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.

[9:21]  ² tn Heb “your sin.” This is a metonymy in which the effect (sin) stands for the cause (the metal calf).

[9:21]  ³ tn Heb “burned it with fire.”

[12:31]  ³ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

[12:31]  ⁴ tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

[12:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

[13:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “street.”

[13:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “mound”; NAB “a heap of ruins.” The Hebrew word תֵּל (tel) refers to this day to a ruin represented especially by a built-up mound of dirt or debris (cf. Tel Aviv, “mound of grain”).