What Does Exodus 34:13 Mean?
But you shall tear down their altars, break their standing stones, and cut down their groves.
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 ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:THE KEY
The verse makes allegiance material: rival worship is embodied in altars, standing pillars, and Asherah installations that the command names for demolition.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks as an uncompromising command: altars are demolished, standing pillars shattered, and Asherah cult objects cut down. Its targets are physical installations, and its force is materially destructive. The KJV’s “groves” names the Asherim, cult objects or wooden installations associated with Asherah.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that exclusive allegiance can leave competing sacred installations intact: the verse calls for their demolition.
THE ROOT
מִזְבְּחֹתֵיהֶם
mizbechoteihem
GROWS FROM
זבח
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“altars” in this verse is mizbechoteihem. The Hebrew mizbeach, “altar,” grows from zabach, the act of slaughtering or sacrificing. The word brings the act of sacrifice into the name of the place, making the command concrete: it targets sites where sacrifice is enacted.
ALSO GROWS
zavach: To slaughter; to offer a sacrifice.
זָבַח
This verb names the act carried out at the altar.
zevach: Slaughter or sacrifice.
זֶבַח
This noun connects the altar to the sacrifice it receives.
mizbeach: Altar; a place of sacrifice.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The singular form retains the root’s connection to sacrificial action.
מַצֵּבֹתֵיהֶם
matsevoteihem
GROWS FROM
נצב
To stand, set up, or station.
“standing stones” in this verse is matsevoteihem. The Hebrew word points to standing pillars or stones, objects set upright as cult markers. The command reaches the erected objects themselves: they are to be shattered.
ALSO GROWS
natsav: To stand or set in place.
נָצַב
The verb supplies the image of an object made to stand.
matsevah: A standing pillar or stone.
מַצֵּבָה
This is the singular form of the kind of object named in the verse.
תִּכְרֹתוּן
tikhretun
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or sever.
“cut down” in this verse is tikhretun. Karat means to cut or sever, and the same verb appears in the Hebrew idiom for making a covenant: “cut a covenant.” The verb here connects cutting down the Asherim with the language of covenant and decisive severance.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut or cut off.
כָּרַת
This is the verb behind the command to cut down.
karat berit: To cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb links severing with the making of a covenant.
keritut: Severance or cutting off.
כְּרִיתוּת
This noun carries the root’s sense of a decisive separation.
THE PATTERN
Exclusive allegiance takes material form in dismantling the installations of rival worship.
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.And he broke the standing stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with human bones.Many of those who had practiced the meddling arts also brought their scrolls together and burned them before all people; and they counted the price, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.The Hebrew verb behind “cut down” is karat, the same verb hidden behind “made a covenant” in Genesis 15:18. Hebrew joins the severing of the Asherim and the cutting of covenant through one root, giving the command’s language the edge of covenant allegiance.
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