Leviticus 26:1

World English Bible (2000)

"'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh 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 "'Don't turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.
• Exod 23:24 : 24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
• Exod 20:4-5 : 4 "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
• Exod 20:23 : 23 You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.
• Num 33:52 : 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places:
• Deut 16:21-22 : 21 You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourselves. 22 Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar; which Yahweh your God hates.
• Deut 27:15 : 15 'Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' All the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'
• Ps 97:7 : 7 Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!
• Ps 115:4-8 : 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they don't speak. They have eyes, but they don't see. 6 They have ears, but they don't hear. They have noses, but they don't smell. 7 They have hands, but they don't feel. They have feet, but they don't walk, neither do they speak through their throat. 8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
• Isa 2:20 : 20 In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
• Isa 44:9-9 : 9 Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. 10 Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. 12 The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it. 16 He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, "Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire." 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god!" 18 They don't know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand. 19 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?" 20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
• Isa 48:5-8 : 5 therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.' 6 You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. 7 They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.' 8 Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
• Jer 10:3-8 : 3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. 5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good." 6 There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might. 7 Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you. 8 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
• Acts 17:29 : 29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
• Rom 2:22-23 : 22 You who say a man shouldn't commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?
• 1 Cor 10:19-20 : 19 What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don't desire that you would have fellowship with demons.
• Rev 13:14-15 : 14 He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. 15 It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed.
• Rev 22:15 : 15 Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
• Deut 4:16-19 : 16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; 19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
• Deut 5:8-9 : 8 "You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, [nor] any likeness [of anything] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 9 you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me;
• Exod 34:17 : 17 "You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.