Imamat 26:1

Exhortation to Obedience

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.

Mazmur 106:34-36

106:34 They did not destroy the nations, ³ 

as the Lord had commanded them to do.

106:35 They mixed in with the nations

and learned their ways. ⁴ 

106:36 They worshiped ⁵  their idols,

which became a snare to them. ⁶ 

[26:1]  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.”

[26:1]  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).

[106:34]  ³ tn That is, the nations of Canaan.

[106:35]  ⁴ tn Heb “their deeds.”

[106:36]  ⁵ tn Or “served.”

[106:36]  ⁶ sn Became a snare. See Exod 23:33; Judg 2:3.