Isaiah 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ¹ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ² 

They will make all the stones of the altars ³ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 7:19

7:19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. ⁵  Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. ⁶  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth ⁷  was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 14:3-7

14:3 “Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity ⁹  right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek ¹⁰  me? 14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. ¹¹  14:5 I will do this in order to capture the hearts of the house of Israel, who have alienated themselves from me on account of all their idols.’

14:6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Return! Turn from your idols, and turn your faces away from your abominations. 14:7 For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally.

Ezekiel 44:12

44:12 Because they used to minister to them before their idols, and became a sinful obstacle ¹²  to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow ¹³  concerning them, declares the sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible ¹⁴  for their sin.

Hosea 14:3

14:3 Assyria cannot save us;

we will not ride warhorses.

We will never again say, ‘Our gods’

to what our own hands have made.

For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!” ¹⁵ 

Hosea 14:8

14:8 O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ¹⁶  with idols anymore!

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like ¹⁷  a luxuriant cypress tree; ¹⁸ 

your fruitfulness comes from me! ¹⁹ 

Micah 5:11-14

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ²⁰  that you practice, ²¹ 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ²² 

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ²³  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ²⁴ 

Zechariah 13:2

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ²⁵  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Matthew 23:39

23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’” ²⁶ 

Revelation 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ²⁷  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ²⁸  before the people ²⁹  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ³⁰ 

[27:9]  ¹ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ² tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ³ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ⁴ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[7:19]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.

[7:19]  ⁶ sn Compare Zeph 1:18.

[7:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).

[7:19]  ⁸ tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).

[14:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “the stumbling block of their iniquity.” This phrase is unique to the prophet Ezekiel.

[14:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to them.” The Hebrew word is used in a technical sense here of seeking an oracle from a prophet (2 Kgs 1:16; 3:11; 8:8).

[14:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in accordance with the multitude of his idols.”

[44:12]  ¹² tn Heb “a stumbling block of iniquity.” This is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (cf. also Ezek 7:19; 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30).

[44:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[44:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will bear.”

[14:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “For the orphan is shown compassion by you.” The present translation takes “orphan” as a figurative reference to Israel, which is specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:8]  ¹⁶ 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).

[14:8]  ¹⁷ 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).

[14:8]  ¹⁸ tn Cf. KJV “a green fir tree”; NIV, NCV “a green pine tree”; NRSV “an evergreen cypress.”

[14:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your fruit is found in me”; NRSV “your faithfulness comes from me.”

[5:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ²² tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[5:14]  ²³ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  ²⁴ tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[13:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”

[23:39]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 118:26.

[2:14]  ²⁷ sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

[2:14]  ²⁸ tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”

[2:14]  ²⁹ tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).

[2:14]  ³⁰ tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”