Leviticus 26:1
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Rewards for Obedience
26 “You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them, for I am the Lord your God.(A)
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Leviticus 19:4
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4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.(A)
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Exodus 23:24
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24 you shall not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.(A)
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Exodus 20:4-5
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4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.(A) 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me(B)
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Deuteronomy 27:15
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15 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall respond, saying, ‘Amen!’(A)
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Deuteronomy 16:21-22
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Forbidden Forms of Worship
21 “You shall not plant any tree as a sacred pole[a] beside the altar that you make for the Lord your God,(A) 22 nor shall you set up a stone pillar—things that the Lord your God hates.
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- 16.21 Or Asherah
Numbers 33:52
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52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places.(A)
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Exodus 20:23
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23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.(A)
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Revelation 22:15
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15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral[a] and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.(A)
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- 22.15 Or prostitutes
Revelation 13:14-15
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14 and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword[a] and yet lived,(A) 15 and it was allowed to give breath[b] to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
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1 Corinthians 10:19-20
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19 What do I imply, then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what they[a] sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.(A)
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- 10.20 Other ancient authorities read the gentiles
Romans 2:22-23
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22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law?
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Acts 17:29
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29 “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.(A)
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Jeremiah 10:3-8
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3 For the customs of the peoples are false:
a tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan;(A)
4 they deck it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammers and nails
so that it cannot move.(B)
5 Their idols[a] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
nor is it in them to do good.(C)
6 There is none like you, O Lord;
you are great, and your name is great in might.(D)
7 Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For that is your due;
among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is no one like you.(E)
8 They are both stupid and foolish;
the instruction given by idols
is no better than wood
Deuteronomy 5:8-9
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8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me(A)
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Deuteronomy 4:16-19
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16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,(A) 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.(B)
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Exodus 34:17
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17 “You shall not make cast idols.(A)
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Isaiah 48:5-8
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5 I declared them to you from long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, “My idol did them;
my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”(A)
6 You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I tell you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.(B)
7 They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
so that you could not say, “I already knew them.”
8 You have never heard; you have never known;
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would act very treacherously
and that from birth you were called a rebel.(C)
Isaiah 44:9-20
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The Absurdity of Idol Worship
9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, and so they will be put to shame.(A) 10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?(B) 11 All its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans, too, are merely human. Let them all assemble; let them stand up; they shall be terrified; they shall all be put to shame.(C)
12 The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.(D) 13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.(E) 14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.(F) 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,[a] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm[b] by the fire!” 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”(G)
18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.(H) 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”(I) 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”(J)
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Isaiah 2:20
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20 On that day people will throw away
to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,(A)
Psalm 115:4-8
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4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.(A)
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
they have eyes, but they do not see.
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
they have noses, but they do not smell.
7 They have hands, but they do not feel;
they have feet, but they do not walk;
they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.(B)
Psalm 97:7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
7 All servants of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.(A)
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