Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 34:13
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
13. The altars and religious emblems of the Canaanites to be utterly destroyed. Cf. Exo 23:24, with the references; and the almost verbal repetitions in Deu 7:5; Deu 12:3.
pillars ] or standing-stones: see on Exo 23:24.
Ashrim ] The plur. of Ashrh, the sacred wooden (see Deu 16:21, Jdg 6:26) post or column, which stood by the altar in Canaanite places of worship (cf. Jdg 6:25-30, by an altar of Baal), and was often by the unspiritual Israelites set up (2Ki 17:10), or (Deu 16:21) ‘planted,’ beside the altar of Jehovah. It is often supposed to have been a conventional substitute for a sacred tree; but this is not certain. We have no particulars about the precise size or shape of an Ashrh: the two posts, of the form of tree-trunks, resting on a wide base, and surmounted by representations of the full and crescent moon, carved upon a stone from Carthage (Nowack, Arch. ii. 19; Benzinger, Arch. 1 p. 381, 2 p. 326), might indeed be Ashrhs; but we have no evidence that they were. The name Abd-ashirta (‘servant of Ashirta’) in the Tell el-Amarna letters, and the expression ‘finger (oracle) of Ashirta,’ on a cuneiform tablet of c. 1350 found at Taanach (see the writer’s Schweich Lectures, p. 82), seem to indicate that there was an old Semitic goddess Ashrh; and if this was the case, the ‘Ashrh’ of the OT. was probably her emblem: but the great difference in the Heb. ( and ) makes it unlikely that she was the same as the Phoen. ‘Ashtreth, or the Ass. Ishtar (Benz. Arch. 2 [220] 326 f.). On account of their heathen associations, the Ashrm, like the mabhs (see on Exo 23:24), were proscribed by the more spiritual Israelites. For other allusions to Ashrhs, see Deu 7:5; Deu 12:3 (repetitions of the present prohibition), 1Ki 14:15; 1Ki 14:23 ; 1Ki 15:13; 1Ki 16:33, 2Ki 13:6 ; 2Ki 18:4; 2Ki 21:3 ; 2Ki 21:7; 2Ki 23:4 ; 2Ki 23:6-7; 2Ki 23:14-15; and comp. Moore’s art. in EB. s.v.
[220] I. Benzinger, Hebr. Archologie, 1894, ed. 2 (enlarged), 1907.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 13. Ye shall destroy their images] See the subjects of this and all the following verses, to Ex 34:28, treated at large in the notes on “Ex 23:24“.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Which at first were used by good men for their devotion, as Gen 21:33; but afterwards being horribly abused to superstition and idolatry, were by God, s command to be destroyed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But ye shall destroy their altars,…. On which they had sacrificed to their idols; since, if they were allowed to continue, they might be temptations to offer sacrifice thereon, contrary to the command of God:
break their images: of gold or silver, wood or stone, which they made for themselves, and worshipped as deities; seeing if these continued, the sight of them might lead to the worship of them, and so bring under the divine displeasure, as a breach of the command of God given them:
and cut down their groves; which were clusters of trees, where they had their temples and their idols, and did service to them, and where, besides idolatry, many impurities were committed. Such places were originally used by good men for devotion, being shady and solitary, but when abused to superstitious and idolatrous uses, were forbidden. It is said n, the word for “grove” is general, and includes every tree they serve, or plant, for an idol.
n R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 72. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.In the Book of the Covenant the command had been simply to quite break down their images (Exo. 23:24). Now, after the Israelites had displayed their idolatrous leanings, it is added that they are likewise to destroy the altars and the groves. Altars were common among all the idolatrous nations, sometimes attached to temples (1Ki. 16:32; 2Ki. 21:4-5), sometimes separate from them (Num. 23:1; Num. 23:29; 2Ki. 16:10-11), and were used for much the same purposes as the Hebrew altars: i.e., for sacrifices, bloody and unbloody, and for burning incense. Groveshere mentioned for the first timewere peculiar to a limited number of nations, as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phnicians, Syrians, and a few others. They appear to have been artificial constructions, either of wood or stone, or both, imitative of vegetable forms, and probably emblematic of the productive powers of nature. The worship connected with the groves was of a peculiarly gross and licentious character. The very name, ashrah, was a modification of Ashtoreth, or Astarte. It is remarkable that nothing is said of destroying Canaannite templesan indication that as yet they did not exist, and a mark of the high antiquity of the book.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Groves Rather, Asherah, pillars, wooden images of Asherah . See notes on Jdg 2:13; Jdg 3:7; and 1Ki 19:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 34:13. Their images I should imagine that the original word matzebotam, signifies pillars or something of that kind, dedicated to the zaba or hosts of heaven.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Ver. 13. Break their images. ] The Popish historians have blurred and blasted those zealous emperors, Zeno and others, that were Iconomachi and Iconoclastai, as sacrilegious. Berne was the first town that, after the Reformation, was purged of images; which Augustine saith cannot be placed in churches, Sine praesentissimo idololatrioe periculo, a without extreme danger of idolatry. Epiphanius saith, It is utterly unlawful and abominable to set up images in the churches of Christians. Irenaeus reproveth the Gnostics, for that they carried about the picture of Christ in Pilate’s time, after his own proportion: using also, for declaration of their affection toward it, to set garlands upon the head of it.
a Aug., in Psalm cxiv.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
images = sacred pillars. Compare Exo 23:24; Exo 24:4, and note on Lev 26:1.
groves = Hebrew. ‘asherah. First occurrence out of forty: always rendered “groves”, but denotes a phallic image, worshipped by libidinous rites and lascivious practices See. App-42.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
ye shall: Exo 23:24, Deu 7:5, Deu 7:25, Deu 7:26, Deu 12:2, Deu 12:3, Jdg 2:2, Jdg 6:25, 2Ki 18:4, 2Ki 23:14, 2Ch 31:1, 2Ch 34:3, 2Ch 34:4
images: Heb. statutes
Reciprocal: Deu 16:21 – General Jdg 3:7 – the groves 1Ki 14:15 – beyond the river 1Ki 16:33 – made a grove 2Ki 17:10 – they set 2Ch 14:3 – brake
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their {d} groves:
(d) Which pleasant places they chose for their idols.