Ulangan 4:16

4:16 I say this ¹  so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,

Ulangan 4:23

4:23 Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he ²  has forbidden ³  you.

Ulangan 4:28

4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

Ulangan 5:8

5:8 You must not make for yourself an image ⁴  of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. ⁵ 

Ulangan 6:15

6:15 for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God and his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land. ⁶ 

Ulangan 7:5

7:5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ⁷  cut down their sacred Asherah poles, ⁸  and burn up their idols.

Ulangan 9:25

Moses’ Plea on Behalf of the Lord’s Reputation

9:25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, ⁹  for he ¹⁰  had said he would destroy you.

Ulangan 12:3

12:3 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹¹  burn up their sacred Asherah poles, ¹²  and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

Ulangan 12:5

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ¹³  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ¹⁴  and you must go there.

Ulangan 13:12

Punishment of Community Idolatry

13:12 Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that

Ulangan 14:1

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ¹⁵  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ¹⁶  for the sake of the dead.

Ulangan 16:8

16:8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. ¹⁷ 

Ulangan 17:2

17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹⁸  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁹  and breaks his covenant

Ulangan 18:4

18:4 You must give them the best of your ²⁰  grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks.

Ulangan 20:18

20:18 so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship ²¹  their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.

Ulangan 23:17

Purity in Cultic Personnel

23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute ²²  among the young women ²³  of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute ²⁴  among the young men ²⁵  of Israel.

Ulangan 27:5

27:5 Then you must build an altar there to the Lord your God, an altar of stones – do not use an iron tool on them.

Ulangan 28:14

28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ²⁶  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ²⁷  them.

[4:16]  ¹ tn The words “I say this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 16 is subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:23]  ² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

[4:23]  ³ tn Heb “commanded.”

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “an image, any likeness.”

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “under the earth” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); NCV “below the land.”

[6:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and destroy you from upon the surface of the ground.” Cf. KJV, ASV “from off the face of the earth.”

[7:5]  ⁷ sn Sacred pillars. The Hebrew word (מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) denotes a standing pillar, usually made of stone. Its purpose was to mark the presence of a shrine or altar thought to have been visited by deity. Though sometimes associated with pure worship of the Lord (Gen 28:18, 22; 31:13; 35:14; Exod 24:4), these pillars were usually associated with pagan cults and rituals (Exod 23:24; 34:13; Deut 12:3; 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 17:10; Hos 3:4; 10:1; Jer 43:13).

[7:5]  ⁸ sn Sacred Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[9:25]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text includes “when I prostrated myself.” Since this is redundant, it has been left untranslated.

[9:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[12:3]  ¹¹ sn Sacred pillars. These are 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.

[12:3]  ¹² sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.

[12:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[12:5]  ¹⁴ tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

[14:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ¹⁶ sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[16:8]  ¹⁷ tn The words “on that day” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for clarification (cf. TEV, NLT).

[17:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[18:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the firstfruits of your…” (so NIV).

[20:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods.”

[23:17]  ²² tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).

[23:17]  ²³ tn Heb “daughters.”

[23:17]  ²⁴ tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[28:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

[28:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in order to serve.”