Leviticus 26:30

26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ¹  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ²  I will abhor you. ³ 

Psalms 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ⁴ 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Isaiah 57:5

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ⁵  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ⁶ 

Isaiah 57:7

57:7 On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed;

you go up there to offer sacrifices.

Jeremiah 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ⁷  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ⁸ 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ⁹ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹¹ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ¹² 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ¹³ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 17:3

17:3 and on the mountains and in the fields. ¹⁵ 

I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder.

I will give it away as the price ¹⁶  for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

[26:30]  ¹ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ² tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ³ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[78:58]  ⁴ tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[57:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ⁶ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[2:20]  ⁷ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ⁹ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ¹² tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[17:3]  ¹⁵ tc This reading follows some of the ancient versions. The MT reads, “hills. My mountain in the open field [alluding to Jerusalem] and your wealth…I will give.” The vocalization of the noun plus pronoun and the unusual form of the expression to allude to Jerusalem calls into question the originality of the MT. The MT reads הֲרָרִי (harari) which combines the suffix for a singular noun with a pointing of the noun in the plural, a form which would be without parallel (compare the forms in Ps 30:8 for the singular noun with suffix and Deut 8:9 for the plural noun with suffix). Likewise, Jerusalem was not “in the open field.” For a similar expression compare Jer 13:27.

[17:3]  ¹⁶ tc Or “I will give away your wealth, all your treasures, and your places of worship…” The translation follows the emendation suggested in the footnote in BHS, reading בִּמְחִיר (bimkhir) in place of בָּמֹתֶיךָ (bamotekha). The forms are graphically very close and one could explain the origin of either from the other. The parallel in 15:13-14 reads לֹא בִּמְחִיר (lo’ bimkhir). The text here may be a deliberate play on that one. The emended text makes decidedly better sense contextually than the MT unless some sardonic reference to their idolatry is intended.