Deuteronomy 7:5

7:5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.

Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 7:26

7:26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.

Deuteronomy 12:3

12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, 10  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Deuteronomy 12:27

12:27 You must offer your burnt offerings, both meat and blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices 11  you must pour out on his 12  altar while you eat the meat.

Deuteronomy 14:28

14:28 At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages.

Deuteronomy 15:19

Giving God the Best

15:19 You must set apart 13  for the Lord your God every firstborn male born to your herds and flocks. You must not work the firstborn of your bulls or shear the firstborn of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 16:8

16:8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. 14 

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants 15  for each tribe in all your villages 16  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. 17 

Deuteronomy 17:5

17:5 you must bring to your city gates 18  that man or woman who has done this wicked thing – that very man or woman – and you must stone that person to death. 19 

Deuteronomy 17:15-16

17:15 you must select without fail 20  a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens 21  you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. 22  17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, 23  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way.

Deuteronomy 21:14

21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go 24  where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell 25  her; 26  you must not take advantage of 27  her, since you have already humiliated 28  her.

Deuteronomy 22:29

22:29 The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

Deuteronomy 23:13

23:13 You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself 29  outside you must dig a hole with the spade 30  and then turn and cover your excrement. 31 

Deuteronomy 24:16

24:16 Fathers must not be put to death for what their children 32  do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.


sn Sacred pillars. The Hebrew word (מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) denotes a standing pillar, usually made of stone. Its purpose was to mark the presence of a shrine or altar thought to have been visited by deity. Though sometimes associated with pure worship of the Lord (Gen 28:18, 22; 31:13; 35:14; Exod 24:4), these pillars were usually associated with pagan cults and rituals (Exod 23:24; 34:13; Deut 12:3; 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 17:10; Hos 3:4; 10:1; Jer 43:13).

sn Sacred Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”

tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

tn Heb “come under the ban” (so NASB); NRSV “be set apart for destruction.” The same phrase occurs again at the end of this verse.

sn The Hebrew word translated an object of divine wrath (חֵרֶם, kherem) refers to persons or things placed under God’s judgment, usually to the extent of their complete destruction. See note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

tn Or “like it is.”

tn This Hebrew verb (שָׁקַץ, shaqats) is essentially synonymous with the next verb (תָעַב, taav; cf. תּוֹעֵבָה, toevah; see note on the word “abhorrent” in v. 25), though its field of meaning is more limited to cultic abomination (cf. Lev 11:11, 13; Ps 22:25).

tn Heb “detesting you must detest and abhorring you must abhor.” Both verbs are preceded by a cognate infinitive absolute indicating emphasis.

sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.

10 sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.

11 sn These other sacrifices would be so-called peace or fellowship offerings whose ritual required a different use of the blood from that of burnt (sin and trespass) offerings (cf. Lev 3; 7:11-14, 19-21).

12 tn Heb “on the altar of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

13 tn Heb “sanctify” (תַּקְדִּישׁ, taqdish), that is, put to use on behalf of the Lord.

14 tn The words “on that day” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for clarification (cf. TEV, NLT).

15 tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.

16 tn Heb “gates.”

17 tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

18 tn Heb “gates.”

19 tn Heb “stone them with stones so that they die” (KJV similar); NCV “throw stones at that person until he dies.”

20 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”

21 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.

22 tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”

23 tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

24 sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.

25 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”

26 tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

27 tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”

28 sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).

29 tn Heb “sit.” This expression is euphemistic.

30 tn Heb “with it”; the referent (the spade mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

31 tn Heb “what comes from you,” a euphemism.

32 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB; twice in this verse). Many English versions, including the KJV, read “children” here.