Joshua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ¹  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ²  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ³  other gods,

Joshua 24:23

24:23 Joshua said, ⁴  “Now put aside the foreign gods that are among you and submit to ⁵  the Lord God of Israel.”

Genesis 35:2

35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ⁶  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ⁷ 

Exodus 20:3-4

20:3 “You shall have no ⁸  other gods before me. ⁹ 

20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image ¹⁰  or any likeness ¹¹  of anything ¹²  that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. ¹³ 

Leviticus 17:7

17:7 So they must no longer offer ¹⁴  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ¹⁵  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ¹⁶  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ¹⁷ 

Ezra 9:11

9:11 which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words: ¹⁸  ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! ¹⁹  With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness.

Ezekiel 20:18

20:18 “‘But I said to their children ²⁰  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ²¹  nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Amos 5:25-26

5:25 You did not bring me ²²  sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family ²³  of Israel.

5:26 You will pick up your images ²⁴  of Sikkuth, ²⁵  your king, ²⁶ 

and Kiyyun, ²⁷  your star god, which you made for yourselves,

[24:2]  ¹ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ² tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ³ tn Or “served.”

[24:23]  ⁴ tn The words “Joshua said” are supplied for clarification.

[24:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “bend your heart toward.” The term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) probably here refers to the people’s volition or will.

[35:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “which are in your midst.”

[35:2]  ⁷ sn The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

[20:3]  ⁸ tn The possession is expressed here by the use of the lamed (ל) preposition and the verb “to be”: לֹא־יִהְיֶה לְךָ (lo’ yihyeh lÿkha, “there will not be to you”). The negative with the imperfect expresses the emphatic prohibition; it is best reflected with “you will not” and has the strongest expectation of obedience (see GKC 317 §107.o). As an additional way of looking at this line, U. Cassuto suggests that the verb is in the singular in order to say that they could not have even one other god, and the word “gods” is plural to include any gods (Exodus, 241).

[20:3]  ⁹ tn The expression עַל־פָּנָי (’al-panay) has several possible interpretations. S. R. Driver suggests “in front of me,” meaning obliging me to behold them, and also giving a prominence above me (Exodus, 193-94). W. F. Albright rendered it “You shall not prefer other gods to me” (From the Stone Age to Christianity, 297, n. 29). B. Jacob (Exodus, 546) illustrates it with marriage: the wife could belong to only one man while every other man was “another man.” They continued to exist but were not available to her. The point is clear from the Law, regardless of the specific way the prepositional phrase is rendered. God demands absolute allegiance, to the exclusion of all other deities. The preposition may imply some antagonism, for false gods would be opposed to Yahweh. U. Cassuto adds that God was in effect saying that anytime Israel turned to a false god they had to know that the Lord was there – it is always in his presence, or before him (Exodus, 241).

[20:4]  ¹⁰ tn A פֶּסֶל (pesel) is an image that was carved out of wood or stone. The Law was concerned with a statue that would be made for the purpose of worship, an idol to be venerated, and not any ordinary statue.

[20:4]  ¹¹ tn The word תְּמוּנָה (tÿmunah) refers to the mental pattern from which the פֶּסֶל (pesel) is constructed; it is a real or imagined resemblance. If this is to stand as a second object to the verb, then the verb itself takes a slightly different nuance here. It would convey “you shall not make an image, neither shall you conceive a form” for worship (B. Jacob, Exodus, 547). Some simply make the second word qualify the first: “you shall not make an idol in the form of…” (NIV).

[20:4]  ¹² tn Here the phrase “of anything” has been supplied.

[20:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “under the earth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[17:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

[17:7]  ¹⁵ tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

[17:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

[17:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[9:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “through your servants the prophets, saying.”

[9:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[20:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “sons,” reflecting the patriarchal idiom of the culture.

[20:18]  ²¹ tn Or “standard of justice.” See Ezek 7:27.

[5:25]  ²² tn Heb “Did you bring me…?” This rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The point seems to be this: Since sacrifices did not characterize God’s relationship with Israel during the nation’s formative years, the people should not consider them to be so fundamental. The Lord places a higher priority on justice than he does on empty ritual.

[5:25]  ²³ tn Heb “house.”

[5:26]  ²⁴ tn This word appears in an awkward position in the Hebrew, following “Kiyyun.” It is placed here for better sense.

[5:26]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew term סִכּוּת (sikkut) apparently refers to Sakkuth, a Mesopotamian star god identified with Ninurta in an Ugaritic god list. The name is vocalized in the Hebrew text after the pattern of שִׁקוּץ (shiqquts, “detestable thing”). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 195-96. Some English versions, following the LXX, translate as “tent” or “shrine” (NEB, NIV), pointing the term as סֻכַּת (sukkat; cf. 9:11).

[5:26]  ²⁶ tc LXX, Vulgate, and Acts 7:43 read “Moloch” (cf. KJV). The Hebrew consonants are the same for both “king” and “Moloch” (מֹלֶךְ; molekh).

[5:26]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew term כִּיּוּן (kiyyun) apparently refers to the Mesopotamian god Kayamanu, or Saturn. The name, like “Sikkuth” in the previous line, is vocalized in the Hebrew text after the pattern of שִׁקוּץ (shiqquts, “detestable thing”). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 195-96. Some versions translate as “pedestal” (NEB, NIV), relating the term to the root כּוּן (kun).