Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| out | וְה֨וֹרַשְׁתֶּ֜ם ve.Ho.rash.Tem | H3423 | to occupy (by driving out previous tenants · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural |
| inhabitants | יֹשְׁבֵ֤י yo.she.Vei | H3427 | properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct |
| land | הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ ha.'A.retz | H776 | the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| before | מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם mi.pe.nei.Khem | H6440 | the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural |
| destroy | וְאִ֨בַּדְתֶּ֔ם ve.'I.bad.Tem | H6 | properly · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural |
| pictures | מַשְׂכִּיֹּתָ֑ם mas.ki.yo.Tam | H4906 | a figure (carved on stone · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural |
| destroy | תְּאַבֵּ֔דוּ te.'a.Be.du | H6 | properly · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural |
| molten | מַסֵּֽכֹתָם֙ ma.se.kho.Tam | H4541 | properly · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural |
| images | צַלְמֵ֤י tzal.Mei | H6754 | a phantom · noun, common masculine plural construct |
| down | תַּשְׁמִֽידוּ tash.Mi.du | H8045 | to desolate · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural |
| places | בָּמֹתָ֖ם ba.mo.Tam | H1116 | an elevation · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you--not, however, by expulsion, but extermination (Deu 7:1). and destroy all their pictures--obelisks for idolatrous worship (see on Lev 26:1). and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places--by metonymy for all their groves and altars, and materials of worship on the tops of hills.
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you,.... Not at once, but gradually; and the sense is, that they should use their utmost endeavours wholly to extirpate them: and destroy all their pictures; their idolatrous ones; the pictures of their gods, or the statues and figured stones of them: the Targum of Jonathan interprets it,"all the temples of their worship;''and the Jerusalem Targum,"all their idols;''so called, as Jarchi notes, because they covered the floor with a pavement of marble stones, to worship upon them by the stretching out of their hands and feet, according to Leviticus 26:1, and destroy all their molten images; of gold, silver, &c. and quite pl…
Read the whole note in the consoleNumbers 33:52 52. ... destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: 52. Destruite omnes statues earum, et omnes imagines confiatiles destruite, et omnes aras eorum dissipate.
These instructions, with which the eyes of the Israelites were directed to the end of all their wandering, viz., the possession of the promised land, are arranged in two sections by longer introductory formulas (Num 33:50 and Num 35:1). The former contains the divine commands (a) with regard to the extermination of the Canaanites and their idolatry, and the division of the land among the tribes of Israel (Num 33:50-56); (b) concerning the boundaries of Canaan (Num 34:1-15); (c) concerning the men who were to divide the land (Num 34:16-29). The second contains commands (a) respecting the towns to be given up to the Levites (Num 35:1-8); (b) as to the setting apart of cities of refuge for unin…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
After the Israelites reached the plains of Moab opposite Jericho (22:1), they camped there for the rest of the period covered in Numbers (see 36:13) and Deuteronomy (Deut 34:8). While they were camped there, God gave Israel specific instructions for dealing with the population of Canaan. The Lord commanded his people to destroy the people groups that occupied Canaan and to obliterate all vestiges of their religious practices (cp. Exod 23:23-33; 34:11-17; Deut 7:1-6; 12:2-4; Josh 23:4-8). Moses’ commands included the destruction of their carved and molten images (cp. Lev 26:1) and the demolition of their pagan shrines (see Deut 12:2-3).
והורשתם means, AND YE SHALL DRIVE OUT. משכיתם — Understand this as the Targum does: THEIR SPOTS FOR WORSHIP; it is called משכית (connected with the root סכך = סכה “to cover”), because they used to cover the ground with marble stone to prostrate themselves upon it with hands and feet stretched forth, as it is said, (Leviticus 26:1): “And no stone of משכית, covering (no mosaic) shall ye put on your ground to prostrate yourself upon it” (because this is a heathen form of worship). מסכיתם — Understand this as the Targum does: their molten gods.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
