Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 7:25
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God.
25. The graven images burn with fire ] Deu 7:5. Curiously in the Pl., as there is an otherwise Sg. context (the text is confirmed by Sam. and LXX). Steuern marks the verse as secondary, but unnecessarily; the isolated Pl. may be due to a scribe whose eye or ear was impressed with Deu 7:5 (so, too, Bertholet). Burn, the body of the image therefore was of wood, but plated or ornamented with metal (yet cp. Exo 32:20). Hence further
thou shalt not covet the silver or the gold that is on them ] Cp. Jos 7:1; Jos 7:21, Achan’s trespass in the devoted thing. The former of these is editorial; the latter, with Achan’s confession that he had coveted 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold, belongs to JE.
snared ] See on Deu 7:16.
an abomination ] The Heb. t‘ebah is that which is ritually unlawful, and therefore unclean and abhorrent, in respect to some religious system. Thus it is used of Israel’s own sacrifices as unlawful in Egypt, which the Egyptians would stone Israel for performing there, Exo 8:26, J (see note on that verse). Similarly it is frequently used in D) (either alone or followed by Jehovah) of the rites and religious practices of heathen nations as unlawful and unclean for Israel, Deu 12:31, Deu 13:14 (the effort to seduce to those rites), Deu 17:4, Deu 18:9, Deu 20:18; and by metonymy of the things used in those rites, Deu 7:25-26, Deu 27:15 (images, cp. Deu 32:16 parallel to strange gods); of a blemished sacrifice, Deu 17:1, and unclean food, Deu 14:3; and also of persons participating in such rites, Deu 18:12, Deu 23:18, or following other unlawful courses, Deu 22:5 (wearing the garments of the other sex), Deu 25:16 (using unjust weights); and finally, Deu 24:4, of re-marriage with one’s divorced wife after she has been married to another. All these 16 instances occur in Sg. passages with two exceptions, Deu 20:18, a Pl. clause in a Sg. context, and Deu 32:16 a line in the Song (the verb, to abhor, Deu 7:26, Deu 23:7). No such use of the noun with reference to Israel occurs in JE, but-in Leviticus 17-26, the Holiness-Code, it is used several times of the sin of unchastity. In Proverbs Jehovah’s abomination has an ethical force.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The silver or gold that is on them – The silver and gold with which the statues of the gods were overlaid. Paul is probably alluding to this command in Rom 2:22; and his accusation of the Jew thus shows that the prohibition of the text was very necessary.
Lest thou be snared – As by the rich ephod made by Gideon: compare the marginal reference.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Deu 7:25
Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold.
Things not to be desired
Showing, as he always shows, a most penetrating mind, Moses points to a very subtle temptation which would arise in connection with the progress of Israel. The graven images of the heathen nations were to be burned with fire. Moses says in the twenty-fifth verse: Thou shalt not desire . . . lest thou be ensnared therein. How subtle is the temptation in that direction! Shall we cast in the hideous gods and the valuable gold, and consume them both in the unsparing fire? How much better first to strip the god of his golden coat and then burn the wood or clay or grind the stone to powder! Moses, foreseeing this temptation, and by the very inspiration of God, knowing the mysteries of human nature, said: Touch not; taste not; handle not. In such abstention is the only possible safety of the Church. The temptation operates today. Men will sustain a questionable mode of earning a livelihood on the pretence that they can gather from the forbidden trade gold and silver which they can melt down and mint with the image and superscription of God; they can allow the devastating traffic to proceed, reeking like the pit of hell, destroying countless thousands of lives, and yet justify the continuance of the iniquity by taking off the gold and the silver and throwing part of it into the coffers of the Church. Missions so sustained are dishonoured. The gold torn from any evil way of getting a livelihood and given to the Church is an abomination to the Lord thy God. He does not want even good gold stolen for His purposes, or gold won by unholy means thrown into His exchequer. Let us give honest money. Let us eat bread unleavened by wrong-doing; there may be little of it, but Christ will break it with His own hands, and it shall be more than our hunger needs. Marvellous, too, is the prevision of Moses when he lays down the only law or principle by which all these abstentions and all these actions can be sustained. Do not let us ascribe these regulations to the prevision of Moses unless we understand by that term the inspiration of God. What is the principle which guarantees safety and protects the soul from the unclean things of heathen nations? That principle is laid down in the twenty-sixth verse. Speaking of heathen abomination Moses says: Thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it. There is no middle feeling; there is no intermediate way of dealing with bad things. If thy right, hand offend thee, cut it off; if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Thus the Testaments are one: the moral tone is the same; the stern law never yields to time–its phrase changes, its words may come and go, its forms may take upon them the colour of the transient times, but the inner spirit of righteousness is the Spirit of God, without beginning, without measure, without end. (J. Parker, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them] Some of the ancient idols were plated over with gold, and God saw that the value of the metal and the excellence of the workmanship might be an inducement for the Israelites to preserve them; and this might lead, remotely at least, to idolatry. As the idols were accursed, all those who had them, or any thing appertaining to them, were accursed also, De 7:26.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is on them, wherewith the idols are covered or adorned, nor consequently any other of their ornaments. This he commands to show his utter detestation of idolatry, and to cut off all occasions of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire,…. Which is repeated from De 7:5, that it might be the more observed and strictly performed, and which unless done, they could not expect the utter destruction of their enemies, who were left in the land to try and prove them with respect to this very thing:
thou shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them: the raiment of gold or silver with which they were bedecked, or the plates of gold and silver with which they were covered, or any ornament about them, as chains and the like, that were of either of these metals; see
Eze 16:16,
nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; nor take it into their possession, or bring it into their houses, as in the next verse, lest they should be under a temptation to worship it, or keep it as a superstitious relic:
for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God; not only the idol itself, being put in the place of God, and so derogatory to his honour and glory, but the gold and silver on it, being devoted to a superstitious and idolatrous use; and even the taking of it, and appropriating it to a man’s own use, was an abomination, and resented by the Lord as such.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
25. The graven images of their gods. He again impresses upon them the object of the destruction of the nations, but he goes further than before. He had before forbidden them to worship their gods. He now commands them to consume their graven images with fire, for since the people were prone to superstition, such snares might easily have alienated them from God’s pure worship. Nor does he command them merely to melt the gold and silver so as to alter its shape, but he altogether interdicts its use, since it would be a contagious plague; for he shews how greatly God abominates idols, inasmuch as whosoever should touch the materials of which they were molten, would contract pollution and become accursed. This great severity might indeed seem to condemn the metals which were created for man’s use, as if they were impure, and as if the perfectness of natural things was liable to be corrupted by man. But in this way idolaters would contaminate the sun and moon, when falsely regarding them as objects of corrupt worship; and it must be answered that the gold and silver itself was by no means polluted by this impious abuse; but that, although free from all stain in itself, it was polluted in respect to the people. Such was the uncleanness of animals, not that they had in themselves any pollution, but because God had interdicted their being eaten. The pollution therefore which is now mentioned arises from a similar prohibition; for otherwise the ignorant people could not be restrained, and hence God would have that to be abominable which in itself was pure. Still this was a political precept, and only given temporarily to the ancient people; yet we gather from it how detestable idolatry is, which even infects the works of God themselves with its own filthiness.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(25, 26) These words are a special warning against the sin which Achan committed (Jos. 7:21): I coveted them, and took them. They also describe the consequences which he experienced, together with his whole household, being made chrem. devoted or accursed by the spoil which he took from Jericho. (See on Joshua 7)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Lest thou be snared The Israelites were to utterly destroy the idols of the conquered nations, to obliterate all trace of heathen worship. In the subsequent history we see how easily the people were snared how readily they went after other gods. See Jdg 8:27: “And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 25. Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them The statues and images of their gods were sometimes overlaid with gold and silver. Moses therefore thinks fit to caution them against being tempted, by the richness of the materials, to convert any of their instruments of idolatry to their own private use; but to destroy them utterly, as Moses destroyed the golden calf, Exo 32:20. Every thing which had been employed to an idolatrous use was an accursed thing, charim, i.e. devoted to destruction, which no man might meddle with; or, if he did, he was devoted to destruction, as the thing itself was. See this exemplified in the case of Achan, Joshua 7 and Lev 27:28-29.
REFLECTIONS.Moses encourages them to obedience, by an enlargement on the mercies which would attend them. 1. If they kept God’s judgments, he would love them and bless them. Their posterity should be numerous to inherit the good land, and none of the diseases of Egypt should come near to destroy their lives, or make them uncomfortable. Diseases are God’s scourge: may we never provoke him to lay it upon us in anger! 2. They are repeatedly commanded to destroy the people and their idols; the gold and silver, the beauty of the engraving, or the preciousness of the materials, must not lead them to spare the least relic: what God abhors, they must; and it is their safety to do so, lest they be snared thereby, and become accursed as the idols the heathen doated upon. Note; (1.) Covetousness is real idolatry. (2.) If we would avoid the curse, we must avoid the snare. (3.) Sin, the abominable thing which God hates, is to the true Israelite an object of utter detestation. 3. God promises to strengthen them to extirpate this devoted race. Though the conquest was difficult, from the number of the people and their strength, yet they need not fear them. The wonders that God had shown in Egypt they had seen, and ought to remember: he can and will as easily consume the Canaanites as he did the Egyptians. Besides, he promises to send his auxiliaries; the hornets shall go before, and with their envenomed stings torment and terrify them, that they may fall an easy prey. So soon can God make a despicable insect the instrument of his judgment; but above all, the mighty and terrible God himself is in the midst of them, and who shall stand before them? Note; (1.) Past experience should be brought forth, as encouragement under present difficulties. (2.) If God be for us, what matters it who are against us? (3.) Going forth, under God’s promise, to war against our corruptions, we may, with confidence, be assured that sin shall not have dominion over us. 4. Their conquests shall be gradual as they multiplied to inhabit the land, not all at once, lest the beasts should increase upon them, allured by the carcases of the slain, and the desolations of the land. Note; (1.) Heaven is thus a gradual conquest. Grace by little and little takes increasing possession of the soul, till it is made completely perfect in glory. (2.) The destruction of the enemies of God’s church and people is advancing by degrees; and, however long spared, and difficult to subdue, the decree, is sure; they shall be rooted out at last.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 7:25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God.
Ver. 25. Lest thou be snared. ] Lest it prove as the gold of Toulouse, a baneful to all that fingered it; or the sepulchre of Semiramis, which they that rifled, expecting to find treasure, met with a deadly poison.
a Aurum Tolosanum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
burn = burn up. See App-43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
graven: Deu 7:5, Deu 12:3, Exo 32:20, 1Ch 14:12, Isa 30:22
thou shalt: Jos 7:1, Jos 7:21
snared: Jdg 8:24-27, Zep 1:3, 1Ti 6:9, 1Ti 6:10
an abomination: Deu 17:1, Deu 23:18, Rev 17:5
Reciprocal: Gen 35:2 – strange Gen 35:4 – hid them Exo 8:26 – we shall Exo 23:24 – overthrow Exo 34:13 – ye shall Lev 13:52 – burn Num 33:52 – General Deu 12:2 – utterly Deu 32:16 – abominations Jdg 2:2 – And ye shall 2Sa 5:21 – David 2Ki 10:27 – brake down the image 2Ki 23:6 – and burned 2Ki 23:14 – he brake 2Ch 14:3 – brake 2Ch 15:16 – cut down 2Ch 25:14 – his gods 2Ch 34:4 – brake down Pro 20:10 – abomination Isa 31:7 – in that Eze 5:11 – detestable Dan 3:1 – made Hab 2:9 – that coveteth an evil covetousness Act 19:19 – and burned
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 7:25. The silver or the gold Wherewith the idols were covered or adorned, nor consequently any other of their ornaments. This God commanded, to show his utter detestation of idolatry, and to cut off all occasions of it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou {k} be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God.
(k) And be enticed to idolatry.