Deuteronomy 7:5

5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles^[a] and burn their idols in the fire.

Deuteronomy 7:5 in Other Translations

5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

5 This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols.

5 Here's what you are to do: Tear apart their altars stone by stone, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their sex-and-religion Asherah groves, set fire to their carved god-images.

5 Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their standing pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn up their carved images.

Deuteronomy 7:5 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:5

But thus shall ye deal with them
The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:

ye shall destroy their altars;
on which they sacrificed to their idols:

and break down their images;
of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:

and cut down their groves;
sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides ^F5 says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the (hrva) , or "grove", spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, ( 2 Kings 21:7 ) ( 23:6 ) ,

and burn their graven images with fire;
distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, ( Numbers 33:52 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.

Deuteronomy 7:5 In-Context

3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.

6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 16:21
• 2. S Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 12:2-3

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah; here and elsewhere in Deuteronomy