What Does Deuteronomy 7:25 Mean?
The hewn images of their gods you shall burn in the fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold upon them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it, for it makes the LORD your God recoil.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Taking the gold can make the idol’s allegiance portable: the thing you possess becomes the snare that holds you.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment when the value of an object seems separable from what it serves. Here, the silver and gold belong to the images, and taking them can draw you into the snare named in the verse. The images are to be burned, and the metal is not to be kept; the text calls that entanglement an abomination to the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“I can take what I want from a destructive allegiance and leave the allegiance behind.”
THE ROOT
תּוּקַשׁ
tuqqash
GROWS FROM
יקש
y-q-sh
To trap or ensnare.
“snared” in this verse is tuqqash. The verb here and the Hebrew word for a snare share the root יקש. The text names a trap that catches: what you take can become the very thing that holds you.
ALSO GROWS
moqesh: A snare or trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s image concrete: the danger is something that catches.
yaqush: A fowler or trapper.
יָקוּשׁ
The same root can name the one who lays a trap, showing the active force contained in the word for being snared.
תַחְמֹד
tachmod
GROWS FROM
חמד
ḥ-m-d
To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
The root also describes what is desirable or precious. The verse links the metal’s appeal to the desire that reaches for it, before possession becomes entanglement.
ALSO GROWS
chemdah: Desire, delight, or a desirable thing.
חֶמְדָּה
This noun shows how the root can name both the longing and its valued object.
nechmad: Desirable or precious.
נֶחְמָד
This form reveals the value that draws desire: what seems precious can become the point where the snare begins.
THE PATTERN
What is taken or served as a gain can become the snare that captures the one who takes or serves it.
They shall not settle in your land, lest they make you miss the mark against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.They served their idols, and these became a snare to them.But those who want to be rich fall into testing and a snare, and into many mindless and harmful cravings, which sink people into ruin and the losing of the way.THE THREAD
They shall not settle in your land, lest they make you miss the mark against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.The Hebrew noun for “snare” here, מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh), shares the יקש root with Deuteronomy’s “be snared,” תּוּקַשׁ (tuqqash). The shared root connects serving what the verse forbids with being caught by it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us