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31 (A)I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines,[a] and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; all who dwell in this land I will hand over to you and you shall drive them out before you.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:31 The sea of the Philistines: the Mediterranean. Only in the time of David and Solomon did the territory of Israel come near to reaching such distant borders.

13 Tear down their altars; smash their sacred stones, and cut down their asherahs.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 34:13 Asherah was the name of a Canaanite goddess. In her honor wooden poles (asherot) were erected, just as stone pillars (massebot) were erected in honor of the god Baal. Both were placed near the altar in a Canaanite shrine.

But this is how you must deal with them:(A) Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their asherahs,[a] and destroy their idols by fire.

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Footnotes

  1. 7:5 Sacred pillars…asherahs: cut or uncut stones and wooden poles or trees (cf. 16:21) that had some cultic function. Fairly common religious artifacts, their association with the non-Israelite cults of Canaan and perhaps with Canaanite gods and goddesses, specifically the goddess Asherah, led to their condemnation in the Deuteronomic reform and possibly earlier.

Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their asherahs, and chop down the idols of their gods, that you may destroy the very name of them from that place.

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