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.

Ulangan 16:22

16:22 You must not erect a sacred pillar, ³  a thing the Lord your God detests.

Ulangan 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ⁴  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ⁵  he ⁶  brought you out of Egypt by night.

1 Raja-raja 14:23

14:23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

1 Raja-raja 14:2

14:2 Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise ⁷  yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. ⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 3:2

3:2 Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, ⁹  because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. ¹⁰ 

[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).

[16:22]  ³ sn Sacred pillar. This refers to the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.

[16:1]  ⁴ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[14:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Get up, change yourself.”

[14:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “look, Ahijah the prophet is there, he told me [I would be] king over this nation.”

[3:2]  ⁹ sn Offering sacrifices at the high places. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated.

[3:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for the name of the Lord.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “to honor the Lord”). The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name.