Deuteronomy 12:3

Deu 12:3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

Ver. 3. And ye shall hew down.] As was here done notably in King Edward VI’s days, notwithstanding the withstandings of the rude rabble, which more regarded commotioners than commissioners, and were more guided by rage than by right, &c. {a} So that as one Mr Body, a commissioner, was pulling down images in Cornwall, he was suddenly stabbed into the body, by a priest, with a knife.

{a} Life of Edward VI, by Sir John Heywood.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:3 sacred pillars: See study note on 7:5. • Asherah poles: The feminine counterpart to the sacred pillar was a wooden pole dedicated to the mother goddess, Asherah. • erase the names: With the destruction of all idols and every vestige of pagan worship, the names of these deities would be forgotten. Future generations would know nothing of them (see also study note on 7:24).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Wherein they sacrificed to their idols.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And ye shall overthrow their altars--piles of turf or small stones.

and break their pillars--Before the art of sculpture was known, the statues of idols were only rude blocks of colored stones.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. Ye shall overthrow their altars] Where unholy sacrifices have been offered; and break their pillars, probably meaning statues and representations of their gods cut out of stone; and burn their groves, such as those about the temple of Ashtaroth, the Canaanitish Venus, whose impure rites were practised in different parts of the inclosures or groves round her temples; and ye shall hew down the graven images, probably implying all images carved out of wood; and destroy the names of them, which were no doubt at first graven on the stones, and carved on the trees, and then applied to the surrounding districts. In various instances the names of whole mountains, valleys, and districts were borrowed from the gods worshipped there.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(3) Destroy the names.—The substitution in later times of bosheth for baal in the names Jerubbaal (Jerubbesheth), Eshbaal (Ishbosheth), Meribbaal (Mephibosheth), is a curious example of the literal fulfilment of this command, or, perhaps, rather of the command in Exo_23:13, of which the spirit and purport agree with this.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And you shall overthrow their altars,.... Which were of stone, as Jarchi observes; whereas the altar ordered to be made by the Lord, before the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle was made, was of earth, Exo 20:24 these were to be demolished, lest the Israelites should be tempted to make use of them; and besides, the Lord would not have any remains of idolatry in the land where his tabernacle and worship were, as being abominable to him:

and break down their pillars; or statues erected to the honour of their idols; according to Jarchi it was a single stone hewed out at first for the basis of a statue (y); perhaps such as were called Baetulia, in imitation of the stone Jacob set up for a pillar at Bethel, Gen 28:18.

and burn their groves with fire; which were planted about their temples, and under which also their idols were placed, and where they privately committed the most abominable lewdness under the notion of religion. The Targum of Jonathan renders the word "abominations", meaning idols; and so Jarchi interprets it by a tree that is worshipped; See Gill on Deu 7:5.

and you shall hew down the graven images of their gods; which were made of wood:

and destroy the names of them out of the place; by never making any mention of them in common discourse, and by changing the names of places called from them; and especially by destroying all the relics of them, and whatever appertained to them, which might lead to the mention of them; see Hos 2:17.

(y) Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Their groves - Render their idols of wood: and see the Deu 7:5 note.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Statues. The most ancient idols were not finely carved, but only rough stones. The Phrygian goddess, sent to Rome by Attalus, was a small dark-coloured stone of this nature. (Arnob., contra Gentes. 8.) --- The Venus of the Arabs was but a stone in the form of a pyramid. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Their pillars, upon which their images were set. The names of them, i.e. all the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from the idols.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Their groves — More properly, their images of Asherah. Comp. Deu_7:5; Deu_16:21; also Exo_34:13.

And destroy the names of them — This close connexion of names and places is found in Phoenician and Canaanite mythology, which is remarkable for the number of its local divinities: and it helps to explain why Moses, not content with ordering the destruction of the pagan sanctuaries, insisted upon the abolition of the names. The Israelites were to destroy all that might suggest idol-worship. The Puritans claimed to be carrying out the spirit of this command when, in their iconoclastic zeal, they almost despoiled the churches and cathedrals of works of art in the form of statues and paintings.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pillars - Upon which their images were set. Names - That is, all the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from the idols.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Moses is still talking to the people of Israel.

You must break down their altars

"you must pull apart the altars of those nations" or "you must destroy the altars of those nations"

dash in pieces

"break into pieces" or "shatter"

destroy their name

Here "their name" represents "the memory of them." AT: "destroy them so completely that no one will remember them" or "destroy anything that represents these false gods" (See: Metonymy)

that place

This refers to each place where the nations worshiped their gods.

You will not worship Yahweh your God like that

"You should not worship Yahweh your God like those nations worshiped their gods"

translationWords

altar

column

Asherah

image

false god

name

worship

Yahweh

God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

מזבח consists of many stones,

מצבה of one stone only. It is the בימוס, the pedestal for idolatrous statuary, of which we learn in the Mishna (Avodah Zarah 3:7): A stone which one originally hewed for an idol’s pedestal is forbidden for use.

אשרה is a tree that had been worshipped (Avodah Zarah 47a).

ואבדתם את שמם AND DESTROY THEIR NAMES by giving them contemptuous nicknames. What they call בית גליא, “a sublime house”, you should call בית כריא, “a base house”, what they call עין כל, “the universal eye”, you call, עין קוץ “the thorn eye” (Avodah Zarah 46a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.