Leviticus 26:1

Geneva Bible (1560)

Ye shall make you none idoles nor grauen image, neither reare you vp any pillar, neither shal ye set any image of stone in your land to bow downe to it: for I am the Lord your God.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

לֹֽא־תַעֲשׂ֨וּ לָכֶ֜ם אֱלִילִ֗ם וּפֶ֤סֶל וּמַצֵּבָה֙ לֹֽא־תָקִ֣ימוּ לָכֶ֔ם וְאֶ֣בֶן מַשְׂכִּ֗ית לֹ֤א תִתְּנוּ֙ בְּאַרְצְכֶ֔ם לְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֖ת עָלֶ֑יהָ כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Transliteration

Not taʿaśû to-you ʾelîlîm and-pesel and-maṣṣēbâ not tāqîmû to-you and-ʾeben maśkît not tittenû in-ʾarṣekem to-hištaḥăwōt upon-it for I YHWH ʾĕlōhêkem

Grammar Details

• *taʿaśû*: verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural - you shall make
• *ʾelîlîm*: noun, masculine plural - idols/worthless things
• *pesel*: noun, masculine singular - carved image/idol
• *maṣṣēbâ*: noun, feminine singular - pillar/standing stone
• *tāqîmû*: verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural - you shall set up/erect
• *ʾeben*: noun, feminine singular construct - stone of
• *maśkît*: noun, feminine singular - carved figure/imagery
• *tittenû*: verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural - you shall put/place
• *ʾarṣekem*: noun, feminine singular + 2nd person masculine plural suffix - your land
• *hištaḥăwōt*: verb, hitpael infinitive construct - to bow down/worship
• *YHWH*: proper noun - the divine name
• *ʾĕlōhêkem*: noun, masculine plural + 2nd person masculine plural suffix - your God

Word Meanings

• *ʾelîlîm*: idols/worthless gods/nothings
• *pesel*: carved image/graven image/idol
• *maṣṣēbâ*: pillar/standing stone/sacred pillar
• *ʾeben maśkît*: figured stone/stone with imagery/decorated stone
• *hištaḥăwōt*: to bow down/prostrate oneself/worship

Referenced Verses

• Lev 19:4 : 4 Ye shall not turne vnto idoles, nor make you molten gods: I am the Lord your God.
• Exod 23:24 : 24 Thou shalt not bow downe to their gods, neither serue them, nor doe after the workes of them: but vtterly ouerthrowe them, and breake in pieces their images.
• Exod 20:4-5 : 4 Thou shalt make thee no grauen image, neither any similitude of things that are in heauen aboue, neither that are in the earth beneath, nor that are in the waters vnder the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bowe downe to them, neither serue them: for I am the Lord thy God, a ielous God, visiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, vpon the third generation and vpon the fourth of them that hate me:
• Exod 20:23 : 23 Ye shall not make therefore with me gods of siluer, nor gods of golde: you shall make you none.
• Num 33:52 : 52 Ye shall then driue out all the inhabitants of the land before you, and destroy all their pictures, and breake asunder all their images of metall, and plucke downe all their hie places.
• Deut 16:21-22 : 21 Thou shalt plant thee no groue of any trees neere vnto the altar of the Lorde thy God, which thou shalt make thee. 22 Thou shalt set thee vp no pillar, which thing the Lord thy God hateth.
• Deut 27:15 : 15 Cursed be the man that shall make any carued or molten image, which is an abomination vnto the Lord, the worke of the hands of the craftesman, and putteth it in a secrete place: And all the people shal answere, and say: So be it.
• Ps 97:7 : 7 Confounded be all they that serue grauen images, and that glory in idoles: worship him all ye gods.
• Ps 115:4-8 : 4 Their idoles are siluer and golde, euen the worke of mens hands. 5 They haue a mouth and speake not: they haue eyes and see not. 6 They haue eares and heare not: they haue noses and smell not. 7 They haue handes and touche not: they haue feete and walke not: neither make they a sound with their throte. 8 They that make them are like vnto them: so are all that trust in them.
• Isa 2:20 : 20 At that day shall man cast away his siluer idoles, & his golden idoles (which they had made themselues to worship them) to the mowles and to the backes,
• Isa 44:9-9 : 9 All they that make an image, are vanitie, and their delectable things shall nothing profite: & they are their owne witnesses, that they see not nor know: therefore they shalbe confounded. 10 Who hath made a god, or molten an image, that is profitable for nothing? 11 Beholde, all that are of the felowship thereof, shall be confounded: for the workemen themselues are men: let them all be gathered together, and stand vp, yet they shall feare, and be confounded together. 12 The smith taketh an instrument, and worketh in the coles, and facioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his armes: yea, he is an hungred, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretcheth out a line: he facioneth it with a red thread, he planeth it, and he purtreyeth it with the compasse, and maketh it after the figure of a man, and according to the beautie of a man that it may remaine in an house. 14 He will hewe him downe cedars, and take the pine tree and the oke, and taketh courage among the trees of the forest: he planteth a firre tree, and the raine doeth nourish it. 15 And man burneth thereof: for he will take thereof and warme himselfe: he also kindleth it & baketh bread, yet he maketh a god, & worshippeth it: he maketh it an idole and boweth vnto it. 16 He burneth the halfe thereof euen in the fire, and vpon the halfe thereof he eateth flesh: he rosteth the roste and is satisfied: also he warmeth himselfe and sayth, Aha, I am warme, I haue bene at the fire. 17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, euen his idole: he boweth vnto it, and worshippeth and prayeth vnto it, and sayeth, Deliuer me: for thou art my god. 18 They haue not knowen, nor vnderstand: for God hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their heartes, that they cannot vnderstand. 19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor vnderstanding to say, I haue burnt halfe of it, euen in the fire, and haue baked bread also vpon the coles thereof: I haue rosted flesh, and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I bowe to the stocke of a tree? 20 He feedeth of ashes: a seduced heart hath deceiued him, that he cannot deliuer his soule, nor say, Is there not a lye in my right hand?
• Isa 48:5-8 : 5 Therefore I haue declared it to thee of old: before it came to passe, I shewed it thee, lest thou shouldest say, Mine idole hath done them, and my carued image, and my molten image hath commanded them. 6 Thou hast heard, behold all this, & wil not yee declare it? I haue shewed thee newe things, euen now, & hid things, which thou knewest not. 7 They are created now, and not of olde, and euen before this thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldest say, Beholde, I knewe them. 8 Yet thou heardest them not, neither diddest know them, neither yet was thine eare opened of olde: for I knewe that thou wouldest grieuously transgresse: therefore haue I called thee a transgressour from the wombe.
• Jer 10:3-8 : 3 For the customes of the people are vaine: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest (which is the worke of the handes of the carpenter) with the axe, 4 And another decketh it with siluer, and with golde: they fasten it with nailes, and hammers, that it fall not. 5 The idoles stande vp as the palme tree, but speake not: they are borne because they cannot go feare them not, for they cannot do euill, neither can they do good. 6 There is none like vnto thee, O Lorde: thou art great, and thy name is great in power. 7 Who would not feare thee, O King of nations? For to thee appertaineth the dominion: for among all the wise men of the Gentiles, and in al their kingdomes there is none like thee. 8 But, altogether they dote, and are foolish: for the stocke is a doctrine of vanitie.
• Acts 17:29 : 29 Forasmuch then, as we are the generation of God, we ought not to thinke that ye Godhead is like vnto gold, or siluer, or stone grauen by arte and the inuention of man.
• Rom 2:22-23 : 22 Thou that saist, A man should not commit adulterie, doest thou commit adulterie? thou that abhorrest idoles, committest thou sacrilege? 23 Thou that gloriest in the Lawe, through breaking the Lawe, dishonourest thou God?
• 1 Cor 10:19-20 : 19 What say I then? that the idole is any thing? or that that which is sacrificed to idoles, is any thing? 20 Nay, but that these things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to deuils, and not vnto God: and I would not that ye should haue fellowship with the deuils.
• Rev 13:14-15 : 14 And deceiued them that dwell on the earth by the signes, which were permitted to him to doe in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make the image of the beast, which had the wound of a sword, and did liue. 15 And it was permitted to him to giue a spirit vnto the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast should speake, and should cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast, should be killed.
• Rev 22:15 : 15 For without shall be dogges and enchanters, and whoremongers, and murtherers, and idolaters, and whosoeuer loueth or maketh lies.
• Deut 4:16-19 : 16 That ye corrupt not your selues, and make you a grauen image or representation of any figure: whither it be the likenes of male or female, 17 The likenes of any beast that is on earth, or the likenesse of any fethered foule that flieth in the aire: 18 Or the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the earth, or the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth, 19 And lest thou lift vp thine eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne & the moone and the starres with all the host of heauen, shouldest bee driuen to worship them and serue them, which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen.
• Deut 5:8-9 : 8 Thou shalt make thee no grauen image or any likenesse of that that is in heauen aboue, or which is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters vnder the earth. 9 Thou shalt neither bowe thy selfe vnto them, nor serue them: for I the Lord thy God am a ielous God, visiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, euen vnto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
• Exod 34:17 : 17 Thou shalt make thee no gods of metall.