Exodus 20:22-23
Legacy Standard Bible
22 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that (A)I have spoken [a]to you from heaven. 23 (B)You shall not make other gods besides Me; (C)gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.
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- Exodus 20:22 Lit with
Exodus 20:22-23
New English Translation
The Altar
22 [a] The Lord said[b] to Moses, “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven. 23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me,[c] nor make gods of gold for yourselves.[d]
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- Exodus 20:22 sn Based on the revelation of the holy sovereign God, this pericope instructs Israel on the form of proper worship of such a God. It focuses on the altar, the centerpiece of worship. The point of the section is this: those who worship this holy God must preserve holiness in the way they worship—they worship where he permits, in the manner he prescribes, and with the blessings he promises. This paragraph is said to open the Book of the Covenant, which specifically rules on matters of life and worship.
- Exodus 20:22 tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”
- Exodus 20:23 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.
- Exodus 20:23 tn Heb “neither will you make for you gods of gold.”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).
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