Leviticus 26:30

And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) And I will destroy your high places.—Though these eminences were also used for the worship of Jehovah (Judges 6:25-26; Judges 13:16-23; 1Samuel 7:10; 1Kings 3:2; 2Kings 12:3; 1Chronicles 21:26, &c.), the context shows that the high places here are such as were dedicated to idolatrous worship (Numbers 22:41; Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 12:2; Joshua 13:17, &c.). By the destruction of these places of idolatrous worship, the Israelites would see how utterly worthless those deities were whom they preferred to the God who had wrought such signal redemption for them.

And cut down your images.—Better, and cut down your sun-images, or solar-statues, that is, idolatrous pillars of the sun-god (Isaiah 17:8; 2Chronicles 14:5; 2Chronicles 34:7).

And cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols.—Nothing could show a greater contempt both for the idol-worshippers and the idols than the picture here given. When the apostate Israelites have succumbed to the sword, famine, and pestilence, they will not even have a seemly burial, but their carcases will be mixed up with the shattered remains of their gods, and thus form one dunghill. Similar is the picture given by Ezekiel, “Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols, and I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars” (Ezekiel 6:4-5).

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 26:30. Your high places — In which you will sacrifice after the manner of the heathen. And cut down your images — חמניכם, chamanechem; some would translate this, your temples of the sun; from חמה, chammah, heat, or the sun. But although they worshipped the host of heaven, 2

Kings Leviticus 17:16; and 2 Chronicles 33:3-5; and we read of altars dedicated to them, and of horses and chariots of the sun, 2 Kings 23:11; it does not appear that they ever had any temples dedicated to the sun, unless the chariots of the sun might be so called, which some have understood to be domus vel sacella facta instar curruum, little chapels made after the form of chariots. Buxtorf renders the word, translated images in this verse, subdiales statuæ, statues placed in the open air, and exposed to the sun; and quotes R. Salomon as describing them to be images which they placed on the roofs of their houses, and termed חמנים, chammanim. Carcasses of your idols — Hebrews your dung-hill idols, from גללgalal, dung. Le Clerc understands it of those animals which the Israelites had worshipped, in imitation of the Egyptians; and is of opinion, that God here threatens, that if ever they relapsed into that beastly idolatry, their carcasses should be shamefully exposed in the streets with the carcasses of their idols. But the word carcasses may signify the ruins of their idols in general; the broken pieces of their images. Or this word may be made use of to signify that their idols, how specious soever, or glorious in their eyes, were in truth but lifeless and contemptible carcasses, and should be so far from helping them, that they should be thrown down and broken with them, and both should lie together in a forlorn and loathsome state. See a similar threatening, Ezekiel 6:4-13; and Jeremiah 8:1-2. It was in part fulfilled by Josiah, 2 Chronicles 34:5; and 2 Kings 23:20.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

High places - There is no doubt that the word here denotes elevated spots dedicated to false worship (see Deuteronomy 12:2), and especially, it would seem, to that of Baal Numbers 22:41; Joshua 13:17. Such spots were, however, employed and approved for the worship of Yahweh, not only before the building of the temple, but afterward (Judges 6:25-26; Judges 13:16-23; 1 Samuel 7:10; 1 Samuel 16:5; 1 Kings 3:2; 1 Kings 18:30; 2 Kings 12:3; 1 Chronicles 21:26, etc.). The three altars built by Abraham at Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, and at Mamre, appear to have been on heights, and so was the temple.

The high places in the holy land may thus have been divided into those dedicated to the worship of Yahweh, and those which had been dedicated to idols. And it would seem as if there was a constant struggle going on. The high places polluted by idol worship were of course to be wholly condemned. They were probably resorted to only to gratify a degraded superstition. See Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:2-5. The others might have been innocently used for prayer and religious teaching. But the temptation appears to have been too great for the temper of the people. They offered sacrifice and burnt incense on them; and hence, thorough reformers of the national religion, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, removed the high places altogether 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 23:5.

Your images - The original word is rendered in the margin of our Bible sun images (2 Chronicles 14:5; Isaiah 17:8; Ezekiel 6:4, etc.). Phoenician inscriptions prove that the word was commonly applied to images of Baal and Astarte, the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon. This exactly explains 2 Chronicles 34:4 following.

Idols - The Hebrew word here literally means things which could be rolled about, such as a block of wood or a lump of dirt. It was no doubt a name given in derision. Compare Isaiah 40:20; Isaiah 44:19; 2 Kings 1:2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. I will destroy your high places—Consecrated enclosures on the tops of mountains, or on little hillocks, raised for practising the rites of idolatry.

cut down your images—According to some, those images were made in the form of chariots (2Ki 23:11); according to others, they were of a conical form, like small pyramids. Reared in honor of the sun, they were usually placed on a very high situation, to enable the worshippers to have a better view of the rising sun. They were forbidden to the Israelites, and when set up, ordered to be destroyed.

cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, &c.—Like the statues of idols, which, when broken, lie neglected and contemned, the Jews during the sieges and subsequent captivity often wanted the rites of sepulture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Your high places, in which you will sacrifice after the manner of the heathens. See Leviticus 19:26 Numbers 33:52.

Your images; or, your images of the sun, made for the honour and worshipping of the sun, and having some resemblance to it. See 2 Chronicles 34:7. Under this one kind of idolatry, famous and frequent in those times and places, he contains all the rest. The carcasses of your idols; so he calls them, either to signify that their idols, how specious soever or glorious in their eyes, were in truth but lifeless and contemptible carcasses, having eyes, but see not, &c., Psalm 115:5, or to show that their idols should be so far from helping them, that they should be thrown down and broken with them, and both should lie together in a forlorn and loathsome state.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will destroy your high places,.... Which Jarchi interprets of towers and palaces; but Aben Ezra of the place of sacrifices; for on high places, hills and mountains, they used to build altars, and there offer sacrifices, in imitation of the Heathens; See Gill on Ezekiel 6:13,

and cut down your images; called Chammanim, either from Ham, the son of Noah, the first introducer of idolatrous worship after the flood, as some have thought; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped in Egypt, from whence the Jews might have these images; or rather from Chammah, the sun, so called from its heat; so Jarchi says, there were a sort of idols placed on the roofs of houses, and because they were set in the sun, they were called by this name; and Kimchi (s) observes they were made of wood, and made by the worshippers of the sun, see 2 Kings 23:11; but Aben Ezra is of opinion that these were temples built for the worship of the sun, which is the most early sort of idolatry that appeared in the world, to which Job may be thought to refer, Job 31:26. Some take these to be the or "fire hearths", which Strabo (t) described as large enclosures, in the midst of which was an altar, where the (Persian) Magi kept their fire that never went out, which was an emblem of the sun they worshipped; and these, he says, were in the temples of Anaitis and Omanus, and where the statue of the latter was in great pomp; which idol seems to have its name from the word in the text; and these are fitly added to the high places, because on such, as Herodotus (u) says, the Persians used to worship:

and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols; or "dunghill gods" (w); such as the beetle, the Egyptians worshipped, signifying that they and their idols should be destroyed together:

and my soul shall abhor you; the reverse of Leviticus 26:6; and by comparing it with that, this may signify the removal of the divine Presence from them, as a token of his abhorrence of them; and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it.

(s) Sepher Shorash. rad. & (t) Geograph. l. 15. p. 504. (u) Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131. (w) "stercoreorum deorum vestrorum", Junius & Trernellius, Piscator, Drusius.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. high places] places on which the Israelites anciently practised their worship, and often carried on idolatrous rites in connexion with it. They at first used hills or mountains, and afterwards mounds or platforms. Such idolatrous high places were destroyed by Josiah (2 Kings 23:5-20), but the worship of Jehovah on them (1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 15:35) continued till the Exile.

sun-images] rather, sun-pillars, probably emblems of a Phoenician deity, Baal-Ḥammân, ‘Lord of the sun’s heat.’ See Skinner (C.B.) on Isaiah 17:8.

idols] The Heb. word is a favourite one with Ezekiel (Ezekiel 6:5, etc.). It is a term of contempt, probably meaning blocks, shapeless things.

Leviticus 26:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Fourth and severest stage. - If they should still persist in their opposition, God would chastise them with wrathful meeting, yea, punish them so severely in His wrath, that they would be compelled to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, i.e., to slay their own children and eat them in the extremity of their hunger, - a fact which literally occurred in Samaria in the period of the Syrians (2 Kings 6:28-29), and in Jerusalem in that of the Chaldeans (Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10), and in the Roman war of extermination under Titus (Josephus bell. jud. v. 10, 3) in the most appalling manner. Eating the flesh of their own children is mentioned first, as indicating the extremity of the misery and wretchedness in which the people would perish; and after this, the judgment, by which the nation would be brought to this extremity, is more minutely described in its four principal features: viz., (1) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations (Leviticus 26:30); (2) the overthrow of the towns and sanctuaries (Leviticus 26:31); (3) the devastation of the land, to the amazement of the enemies who dwelt therein (Leviticus 26:32); and (4) the dispersion of the people among the heathen (Leviticus 26:33). The "high places" are altars erected upon heights and mountains in the land, upon which sacrifices were offered both to Jehovah in an unlawful way and also to heathen deities. חמּנים, sun-pillars, are idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship, either simple pillars dedicated to Baal, or idolatrous statues of the sun-god (cf. Movers Phnizier i. pp. 343ff.). "And I give your carcases upon the carcases of your idols." גּלּלים, lit., clods, from גּלל to roll, a contemptuous expression for idols. With the idols the idolaters also were to perish, and defile with their corpses the images, which had also become corpses as it were, through their overthrow and destruction. For the further execution of this threat, see Ezekiel 6:4. This will be your lot, for "My soul rejects you." By virtue of the inward character of His holy nature, Jehovah must abhor and reject the sinner.