Deuteronomy 7:5

Summary

Deuteronomy 7:5 instructs the addressees (plural "you") on how to treat the cultic objects of other nations: their altars, pillars, Asherah poles, and images are to be destroyed by breaking, shattering, cutting, and burning. The verse lists four specific objects paired with four specific verbs of destruction.

Key words

• ti.To.tzu ("you will break down", H5422) — qal imperfect, 2nd person plural masculine; describes tearing down the mizbechotei-hem ("altars", H4196), a construct noun meaning "altars of them."
• te.sha.Be.ru ("you will shatter", H7665) — piel imperfect, intensive stem, indicating forceful, thorough breaking of the matzevotam ("sacred pillars", H4676).
• te.ga.de.'U ("you will cut down", H1438) — piel imperfect with paragoic nun (H9013) added for emphasis, applied to the asherei-hem ("Asherah poles", H0842).
• tis.re.Fu ("you will burn", H8313) — qal imperfect, also carrying the paragogic nun (H9013), governing the pesilei-hem ("images", H6456) together with the phrase ba-'Esh ("with the fire", H0784).
• ki- 'im- ("that... except", H3588A + H0518B) — a compound conditional/contrastive particle combination introducing the clause, functioning here as "but rather" or "instead."

What the text says

The verse opens with the compound particle ki-'im- (H3588A + H0518B), which functions as a strong contrastive marker — "but rather" — setting up a corrective instruction that contrasts with what precedes it (not shown in this passage but implied by the structure). The adverb koh ("thus", H3541) then introduces the manner in which the action commanded by ta'aSu ("you will do", H6213A) is to be carried out, pointing forward to the four specific actions that follow.

Each of the four objects — mizbechotei-hem ("altars", H4196), matzevotam ("pillars", H4676), asherei-hem ("Asherah poles", H0842), and pesilei-hem ("images", H6456) — is a plural construct noun bound to the 3rd person plural masculine suffix -hem ("their", H9028), each syntactically fronted before its corresponding verb. This produces a fronted-object structure (object–verb order) for each pair, giving rhythmic emphasis to each item as it is named before the destructive action is stated. The verbs alternate between qal (simple) forms — tiTotzu (H5422) and tisrefu (H8313) — and piel (intensive) forms — teshaBeru (H7665) and tega.de.'U (H1438) — the piel stem intensifying the shattering and cutting actions specifically. Two of the four verbs, tega.de.'U and tisreFu, carry the paragogic nun (H9013), an emphatic verbal ending that does not alter tense or meaning but adds rhetorical weight to those final two commands. The last item, the pesilim ("images", H6456), receives an additional prepositional phrase, ba-'Esh ("with the fire", H0784), specifying burning as the method, unlike the other three destructive verbs which stand without such specification.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders pesilei-hem ("their images", H6456) as "τὰ γλυπτὰ τῶν θεῶν αὐτῶν" ("the carved things of their gods"), adding an explicit reference to "gods" (θεῶν) not present in the Hebrew noun itself. The Vulgate's sculptilia ("carved things") stays closer to the Hebrew sense without adding "of their gods." The Hebrew's paragogic nun emphasis on the final two verbs has no distinct grammatical counterpart in the Greek or Latin renderings, which use plain future-tense verbs throughout.