Deuteronomy 12:2

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods– on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • 2 Kgs 16:4 : 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
  • 2 Kgs 17:10-11 : 10 They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the LORD had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the LORD angry.
  • Deut 7:5 : 5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.
  • Deut 7:25-26 : 25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God. 26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.
  • Jer 3:6 : 6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the LORD said to me,“Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.
  • Ezek 20:28-29 : 28 I brought them to the land which I swore to give them, but whenever they saw any high hill or leafy tree, they offered their sacrifices there and presented the offerings that provoke me to anger. They offered their soothing aroma there and poured out their drink offerings. 29 So I said to them, What is this high place you go to?’”(So it is called“High Place” to this day.)
  • Hos 4:13 : 13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery!
  • Judg 2:2 : 2 but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.’ But you have disobeyed me. Why would you do such a thing?
  • 2 Kgs 23:13 : 13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.
  • Exod 23:24 : 24 “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces.
  • Exod 34:12-17 : 12 Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare among you. 13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, you will eat from his sacrifice; 16 and you then take his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well. 17 You must not make yourselves molten gods.
  • Num 22:41 : 41 Then on the next morning Balak took Balaam, and brought him up to Bamoth Baal. From there he saw the extent of the nation.
  • Num 33:51-52 : 51 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them,‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Deut 12:3-4
    2 verses
    88%

    3You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place.

    4You must not worship the LORD your God the way they worship.

  • Num 33:52
    83%

    52you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.

  • Exod 34:13
    81%

    13Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles.

  • Deut 7:5
    79%

    5Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.

  • 2 Kgs 17:10-12
    3 verses
    77%

    10They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

    11They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the LORD had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the LORD angry.

    12They worshiped the disgusting idols in blatant disregard of the LORD’s command.

  • Deut 20:15-18
    4 verses
    77%

    15This is how you are to deal with all those cities located far from you, those that do not belong to these nearby nations.

    16Laws Concerning War with Canaanite Nations As for the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive.

    17Instead you must utterly annihilate them– the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites– just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

    18so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the LORD your God.

  • 1 Kgs 14:23
    76%

    23They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

  • Mic 5:14
    76%

    14I will uproot your images of Asherah from your midst, and destroy your idols.

  • Deut 7:1-2
    2 verses
    76%

    1The Dispossession of Nonvassals When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you– Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you–

    2and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!

  • Deut 13:15-16
    2 verses
    75%

    15you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

    16You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever– it must never be rebuilt again.

  • Exod 23:24
    75%

    24“You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces.

  • Deut 12:29-31
    3 verses
    75%

    29The Abomination of Pagan Gods When the LORD your God eliminates the nations from the place where you are headed and you dispossess them, you will settle down in their land.

    30After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say,“How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.”

    31You must not worship the LORD your God the way they do! For everything that is abhorrent to him, everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

  • Jer 17:2-3
    2 verses
    75%

    2Their children are always thinking about their altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside the green trees on the high hills

    3and on the mountains and in the fields. I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder. I will give it away as the price for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

  • 2 Chr 31:1
    75%

    1When all this was over, the Israelites who were in the cities of Judah went out and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and demolished all the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Then all the Israelites returned to their own homes in their cities.

  • Deut 12:1
    75%

    1The Central Sanctuary These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess.

  • Judg 2:2
    74%

    2but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.’ But you have disobeyed me. Why would you do such a thing?

  • Amos 2:9
    74%

    9For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. They were as tall as cedars and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches and their roots in the ground.

  • 2 Kgs 3:19
    74%

    19You will defeat every fortified city and every important city. You must chop down every productive tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.”

  • Deut 16:21
    74%

    21Examples of Legal Cases You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole near the altar of the LORD your God which you build for yourself.

  • Ezek 6:3
    73%

    3Say,‘Mountains of Israel, Hear the word of the Sovereign LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

  • Deut 20:20
    73%

    20However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, and you may use it to build siege works against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

  • Isa 57:5
    73%

    5you who inflame your lusts among the oaks and under every green tree, who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs.

  • Isa 2:13-14
    2 verses
    73%

    13for all the cedars of Lebanon, that are so high and mighty, for all the oaks of Bashan;

    14for all the tall mountains, for all the high hills,

  • Deut 7:24-25
    2 verses
    73%

    24He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory. Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them.

    25You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God.

  • Ezek 6:13
    73%

    13Then you will know that I am the LORD– when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

  • Josh 11:12
    73%

    12Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.

  • 2 Chr 28:4
    72%

    4He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

  • Deut 31:4
    72%

    4The LORD will do to them just what he did to Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and to their land, which he destroyed.

  • Josh 10:40
    72%

    40Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel had commanded.

  • Deut 12:14
    72%

    14for you may do so only in the place the LORD chooses in one of your tribal areas– there you may do everything I am commanding you.

  • 2 Kgs 23:14
    72%

    14He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled those shrines with human bones.

  • Deut 19:1
    71%

    1Laws Concerning Manslaughter When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

  • Ezek 6:6
    71%

    6In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out.

  • Isa 17:9
    71%

    9At that time their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

  • Lev 26:30
    71%

    30I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you.

  • Deut 11:23
    71%

    23then he will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

  • Josh 17:18
    71%

    18The whole hill country will be yours; though it is a forest, you can clear it and it will be entirely yours. You can conquer the Canaanites, though they have chariots with iron-rimmed wheels and are strong.”