Leviticus 26:1

“‘You must not make for yourselves idols, ¹  so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before ²  it, for I am the Lord your God.

Ex 20:4,5,23; Ex 23:24; Ex 34:17; Le 19:4; De 4:16-19; De 5:8,9; De 16:21,22; De 27:15; Ps 97:7; Ps 115:4-8; Isa 2:20; Isa 44:9-20; Isa 48:5-8; Jer 10:3-8; Ac 17:29; Ro 2:22,23; 1Co 10:19,20; Re 13:14,15; Re 22:15

¹ sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

² tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).