Leviticus 26:1

Ye shall have no idols, or graven image,.... Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, think this law against idolatry is mentioned on account of the Israelite sold to a stranger, spoken

Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

CHAPTER 26 God commands them to shun idolatry, , keep his sabbaths, and reverence his sanctuary, , and walk in his statutes, ; promising plenty, peace, victory, fruitfulness, his tabernacle and presence, . Dreadful threatenings against the despisers, haters, and breakers of his commands; he will give them over to diseases, their enemies, drought, pestilence, sword, ramble; they who remain shall fall one upon another, and pine away in their sins, . But if they confess their sins, and are humbled under God’ s judgments, God will remember his covenant, and show them favour in their enemies’ land, . These statutes the Lord gave to Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses, . A standing image, or, pillar, to wit, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practised by holy men both before and after this law. Compare . So . They are forbidden to make images, not simply or for any use, but for worship.

Leviticus 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God.Ver. 1. Ye shall make you no idols.] God knew the people’ s proneness to idolatry.

XXVI.(1) Ye shall make you no idols.—The first two verses of this chapter are still a part of the previous section in the Hebrew original. By separating them from their proper position, and making them begin a new chapter, both the logical sequence and the import of these two verses are greatly obscured. As Leviticus 26:47-55 legislated for cases where Israelites are driven by extreme poverty to sell themselves to a heathen, and when they may be compelled to continue in this service to the year of jubile, and thus be obliged to witness idolatrous practices, the Lawgiver solemnly repeats the two fundamental precepts of Judaism, which they might be in danger of neglecting, viz., to abstain from idol-worship and to keep the Sabbath, which are two essential commandments of the Decalogue. The same two commandments, but in reverse order, are also joined together in Leviticus 19:3-4. Idols.—For this expression see Leviticus 19:4. Nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image.—Better, nor shall ye rear you up a graven image or pillar. Graven image is not only a plastic image of a heathen deity, but a visible or sensuous representation of the God of Israel (Exodus 20:19-20; Deuteronomy 4:15-16). A standing image.—This expression, which only occurs once more in the text of the Authorised Version (Micah 5:13), and four times in the Margin (1 Kings 14:23; Jeremiah 43:13; Hosea 3:4; Hosea 10:1), is the rendering of a Hebrew word (matzebah), which is usually and more correctly translated “pillar” or “statue” (Genesis 28:18; Genesis 28:22; Genesis 31:13, &c.). This was a plain and rude stone without any image engraved on it, and was not unfrequently erected to God himself. but in after-time more especially as a memorial to false deities. (Genesis 28:18; Genesis 28:22; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:14, with Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13, &c.) Neither shall ye set up any image of stone.—The authorities during the second Temple interpreted the words here rendered “images of stone” to denote beholding, or worshipping stones—i.e., stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions. The stone was therefore a kind of signal, calling the attention of the worshipper to itself, so that he may fall down upon it. With such stones, these authorities assure us, the Temple was paved, since they were perfectly lawful in the sanctuary, but must not be used in worship out of the Temple, or rather, out of the land, as these authorities understood the words “in your land” here to denote. Hence the Chaldee Version paraphrases it, “and a painted stone ye shall not place in your land to prostrate yourselves upon it, but a pavement adorned with figures and pictures ye may put in the floor of your sanctuary, but not to bow down upon it,” i.e., in an idolatrous manner.

CHAPTER XXVI Idolatry forbidden, 1. The Saobath to be sanctified, 2, 3. Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests, and vintage, 4, 5. Of peace and security, 6. Discomfiture of their enemies, 7-9. Of abundance, 10. Of the Divine presence, 11-13. Threatenings against the disobedient, 14, 15. Of terror and dismay, 16. Their enemies shall prevail against them, 17, 18. Of barrenness, 19, 20. Of desolation by wild beasts, 21, 22. And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted upon them, 23, 24. Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the pestilence, 25, 26. If they should still continue refractory they shall be yet more sorely punished, 27, 28. The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat their own children, 29. Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols, 30. Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, 31; the land destroyed, 32, themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter confusion and distress, 33-39. If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to God, he will remember them in mercy, 40-43; Visit them even in the land of their enemies, 44; and remember his covenant with their fathers, 45. The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, 46. NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. Ye shall make you no idols] See Clarke on Exodus 20:4, and See Clarke on Genesis 28:18; "Genesis 28:19", concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interpositions of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2Kg 18:4.

1, 2. These two vv. contain only repetitions of the precepts already given (Leviticus 19:3-4; Leviticus 19:30); in fact, the direction to observe the sabbath appears here for the third time. The redactor of H attached great importance to these vv., and accordingly closed his legislation with them. Their position, however, at the commencement of this ch. is unsuitable and may be owing to accident. Still their importance, as corresponding to the first four Commandments, may account for their insertion.

Idols - literally, “things of nought.” Hebrew אלילים 'ĕlı̂ylı̂m. There appears to have been a play on the similarity in sound of this word to אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym (God). Compare 1 Corinthians 8:4.

, THE SABBATH, AND THE , Leviticus 26:1-2. 1. Standing image — The matstsebah was a pillar or statue of stone or wood. It was used in the worship of Baal.