Deuteronomy 7:2-5
New English Translation
2 and he[a] delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate[b] them. Make no treaty[c] with them and show them no mercy! 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters[d] to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they[e] will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you. 5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars,[f] cut down their sacred Asherah poles,[g] and burn up their idols.
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- Deuteronomy 7:2 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
- Deuteronomy 7:2 tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizes the statement. The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here. Cf. ASV “shalt (must NRSV) utterly destroy them”; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”
- Deuteronomy 7:2 tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”
- Deuteronomy 7:3 sn Heb “Do not give your daughter to his son.” The command (beginning at 7:1) is given in the singular form of “you” to emphasize individual responsibility. At this point, the Hebrew also switches from the plural (see previous clause) to the singular in reference to the Canaanite sons and daughters. While the principle applies to everyone in the nation, the rhetorical presentation is of an individual father making a decision about his specific child and a particular potential spouse.
- Deuteronomy 7:4 tn Heb “he will,” envisioning a particular case. See note in previous verse.
- Deuteronomy 7:5 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).
- Deuteronomy 7:5 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 [ʾasherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
Exodus 23:4
New English Translation
4 “If you encounter[a] your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return[b] it to him.
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- Exodus 23:4 tn Heb “meet” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
- Exodus 23:4 tn The construction uses the imperfect tense (taken here as an obligatory imperfect) and the infinitive absolute for emphasis.
Exodus 34:13
New English Translation
13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles.[a]
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- Exodus 34:13 tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, 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. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
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