What Does Deuteronomy 7:5 Mean?
But thus shall you do to them. You shall tear down their altars, shatter their standing stones, cut down their upright poles, and burn their hewn images in the fire.
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
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.THE KEY
Beneath the repeated English “images,” Hebrew names two different objects: a standing stone and a carved idol, each assigned its own destruction.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with allegiance expressed through the destruction of visible rival worship objects: altars are destroyed, standing stones broken, groves cut down, and carved images burned. Its sequence is uncompromising and physically violent; the text does not soften what it commands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief it undoes is that rejecting rival worship inwardly is enough while its visible objects remain untouched; here, separation takes physical form.
THE ROOT
מַצֵּבֹתָם
matzevotam
GROWS FROM
נצב
To stand, be stationed, or set upright.
“standing stones” in this verse is matzevotam. The English “images” hides a word formed from the idea of standing: these are upright stones or pillars. The verse distinguishes a set-up monument from the carved image it names later, making its object list materially specific.
ALSO GROWS
natsav: To stand or take one’s stand.
נָצַב
The root’s basic sense illuminates the upright form of the object being broken.
matzevah: A standing stone or pillar.
מַצֵּבָה
This noun names the object the KJV renders as “images” in the first phrase.
פְּסִילֵיהֶם
pesileihem
GROWS FROM
פסל
To hew or carve.
“hewn images” in this verse is pesileihem. This image is named through the act of carving: its word carries the sense of a form made by cutting. Beside the standing stone, it reveals that the repeated English “images” covers an erected object and a carved one.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: To hew or carve.
פָּסַל
The verb names the making action behind the graven object.
pesel: A carved image or idol.
פֶּסֶל
The noun names what the act of carving produces.
תְּשַׁבֵּרוּן
teshabberun
GROWS FROM
שבר
To break, fracture, or shatter.
“shatter” in this verse is teshabberun. The verb carries the seed of breaking and shattering. Here the standing stone is physically fractured before the carved image reaches fire, so the listed acts name distinct forms of material destruction.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breaking, fracture, breach, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun preserves the result of the breaking named by the verb.
mishbar: A breaker or breaking wave; surf.
מִשְׁבָּר
The image of a breaker extends the root from a fracture to a force that breaks against what it meets.
THE PATTERN
When scripture confronts rival worship, it names separation through concrete removal, breaking, or flight.
And you shall tear down their altars, and shatter their standing stones, and burn their groves with fire, and you shall cut off the hewn images of their gods, and make the names of them perish out of that place.And he broke the standing stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with human bones.So, my beloved, flee from the service of images.THE THREAD
And you shall tear down their altars, and shatter their standing stones, and burn their groves with fire, and you shall cut off the hewn images of their gods, and make the names of them perish out of that place.This verse uses the same Hebrew root for breaking the standing stones, then extends the sequence to the altars, groves, carved images, and their names. The shared root places the shattering in Deuteronomy 7:5 within a wider dismantling of the objects and their place.
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