Exodus 34:17

17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Exodus 34:17 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 34:17

Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
] Made of a melted liquid, whether gold, or silver, or brass, poured into a mould; and though graven images are not mentioned, they are included, a part being put for the whole, as appears not only from the injunction to break images in general, whether graven or molten, ( Exodus 34:13 ) but from the second command, which expressly forbids the making and worshipping of them; but "molten" ones are particularly mentioned, because it is probable they were chiefly such the Canaanites worshipped, and especially, because the calf the Israelites had lately made and worshipped was a molten one.

Exodus 34:17 In-Context

15 Therefore thou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants of that land because they shall fornicate after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods, and they shall call thee, and thou shalt eat of their sacrifices

16 or take of their daughters unto thy sons, and when their daughters go fornicating after their gods they shall make thy sons also fornicate after their gods.

17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou didst come out from Egypt.

19 All that opens the womb is mine; and every firstborn among thy livestock, whether of cow or of sheep, that is male.