Genesis 1:16-18

1:16 God made two great lights ¹  – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. ²  1:17 God placed the lights ³  in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 1:18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. ⁴  God saw that it was good.

Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ⁵  to the sky ⁶  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ⁷  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ⁸  for the Lord your God has assigned ⁹  them to all the people ¹⁰  of the world. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 11:16

Exhortation to Instruction and Obedience

11:16 Make sure you do not turn away to serve and worship other gods! ¹² 

Deuteronomy 17:3

17:3 by serving other gods and worshiping them – the sun, ¹³  moon, or any other heavenly bodies which I have not permitted you to worship. ¹⁴ 

Deuteronomy 17:2

17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹⁵  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁶  and breaks his covenant

Deuteronomy 23:5

23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ¹⁷  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ¹⁸  you.

Deuteronomy 23:11

23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.

Jeremiah 8:2

8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ¹⁹  These are things they ²⁰  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ²¹  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ²²  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ²³ 

Ezekiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ²⁴  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ²⁵  were about twenty-five ²⁶  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ²⁷  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ²⁸  toward the east!

[1:16]  ¹ sn Two great lights. The text goes to great length to discuss the creation of these lights, suggesting that the subject was very important to the ancients. Since these “lights” were considered deities in the ancient world, the section serves as a strong polemic (see G. Hasel, “The Polemical Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” EvQ 46 [1974]: 81-102). The Book of Genesis is affirming they are created entities, not deities. To underscore this the text does not even give them names. If used here, the usual names for the sun and moon [Shemesh and Yarih, respectively] might have carried pagan connotations, so they are simply described as greater and lesser lights. Moreover, they serve in the capacity that God gives them, which would not be the normal function the pagans ascribed to them. They merely divide, govern, and give light in God’s creation.

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “and the stars.” Now the term “stars” is added as a third object of the verb “made.” Perhaps the language is phenomenological, meaning that the stars appeared in the sky from this time forward.

[1:17]  ³ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the lights mentioned in the preceding verses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:18]  ⁴ sn In days one to three there is a naming by God; in days five and six there is a blessing by God. But on day four there is neither. It could be a mere stylistic variation. But it could also be a deliberate design to avoid naming “sun” and “moon” or promoting them beyond what they are, things that God made to serve in his creation.

[4:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:19]  ⁶ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

[4:19]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

[4:19]  ⁹ tn Or “allotted.”

[4:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “nations.”

[4:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”

[11:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Watch yourselves lest your heart turns and you turn aside and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[17:3]  ¹³ tc The MT reads “and to the sun,” thus including the sun, the moon, and other heavenly spheres among the gods. However, Theodotion and Lucian read “or to the sun,” suggesting perhaps that the sun and the other heavenly bodies are not in the category of actual deities.

[17:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which I have not commanded you.” The words “to worship” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[23:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ¹⁸ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[8:2]  ¹⁹ tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

[8:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

[8:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[8:2]  ²² tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

[8:2]  ²³ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

[8:16]  ²⁴ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

[8:16]  ²⁵ sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

[8:16]  ²⁶ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

[8:16]  ²⁷ sn The temple faced east.

[8:16]  ²⁸ tn Or “the sun god.”