Acts 7:42-43
Context7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over 1 to worship the host 2 of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices 3 forty years in the wilderness, was it, 4 house of Israel? 7:43 But you took along the tabernacle 5 of Moloch 6 and the star of the 7 god Rephan, 8 the images you made to worship, but I will deport 9 you beyond Babylon.’ 10
1 sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.
2 tn Or “stars.”
sn To worship the hosts of heaven. Their action violated Deut 4:19; 17:2-5. See Ps 106:36-43.
3 tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).
4 tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”
5 tn Or “tent.”
sn A tabernacle was a tent used to house religious objects or a shrine (i.e., a portable sanctuary).
6 sn Moloch was a Canaanite deity who was believed to be the god of the sky and the sun.
7 tc ‡ Most
8 sn Rephan (῾Ραιφάν, RJaifan) was a pagan deity. The term was a name for Saturn. It was variously spelled in the
9 tn Or “I will make you move.”
10 sn A quotation from Amos 5:25-27. This constituted a prediction of the exile.