Acts 7:42

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?

De 4:19; De 17:3; 2Ki 17:16; 2Ki 21:3; Job 31:26-28; Ps 81:11,12; Ps 95:10; Isa 43:23; Isa 66:4; Jer 19:13; Eze 8:16; Eze 14:7-10; Eze 20:25,39; Ho 4:17; Am 5:25,26; Ro 1:24-28; 2Th 2:10-12; Heb 3:9,15-17

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?”