Keluaran 20:23

20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, ¹  nor make gods of gold for yourselves. ² 

Keluaran 34:15

34:15 Be careful ³  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ⁴  they prostitute themselves ⁵  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ⁶  you will eat from his sacrifice;

Imamat 17:7

17:7 So they must no longer offer ⁷  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ⁸  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ⁹  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 25:2

25:2 These women invited ¹¹  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ¹² 

Ulangan 32:17

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹³  had not known about.

Mazmur 106:37

106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ¹⁴ 

[20:23]  ¹ tn The direct object of the verb must be “gods of silver.” The prepositional phrase modifies the whole verse to say that these gods would then be alongside the one true God.

[20:23]  ² tn Heb “neither will you make for you gods of gold.”

[20:23]  sn U. Cassuto explains that by the understanding of parallelism each of the halves apply to the whole verse, so that “with me” and “for you” concern gods of silver or gods of gold (Exodus, 255).

[34:15]  ³ tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.

[34:15]  ⁴ tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.

[34:15]  ⁵ tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.

[34:15]  ⁶ tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

[17:7]  ⁸ tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

[17:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

[17:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[25:2]  ¹¹ tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.

[25:2]  ¹² sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.

[32:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[106:37]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.