Deuteronomy 29:26
New International Version
They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.

New Living Translation
Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the LORD.

English Standard Version
and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.

Berean Standard Bible
They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them.

King James Bible
For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

New King James Version
for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.

New American Standard Bible
And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they have not known and whom He had not assigned to them.

NASB 1995
‘They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them.

NASB 1977
‘And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them.

Legacy Standard Bible
And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not apportioned to them.

Amplified Bible
For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, [false] gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted (given) to them.

Christian Standard Bible
They began to serve other gods, bowing in worship to gods they had not known —gods that the LORD had not permitted them to worship.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They began to worship other gods, bowing down to gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not permitted them to worship.

American Standard Version
and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that he had not given unto them:

Contemporary English Version
and decided to worship gods that had never helped them. The LORD had forbidden Israel to worship these gods,

English Revised Version
and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them. These were gods they never heard of, gods the LORD didn't permit them to have.

Good News Translation
They served other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that the LORD had forbidden them to worship.

International Standard Version
They followed and worshipped other gods whom they had not known and whom he did not assign to them.

Majority Standard Bible
They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known?gods that the LORD had not given to them.

NET Bible
They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship.

New Heart English Bible
and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they did not know, and that he had not given to them:

Webster's Bible Translation
For they went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods which they knew not, and which he had not given to them:

World English Bible
and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
and they go and serve other gods, and bow themselves to them—gods which they have not known, and which He has not apportioned to them;

Young's Literal Translation
and they go and serve other gods, and bow themselves to them -- gods which they have not known, and which He hath not apportioned to them;

Smith's Literal Translation
And they will go and serve other gods, and will worship to them gods which they knew them not, and a portion not to them.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
And they have served strange gods, and adored them, whom they knew not, and for whom they had not been assigned:

Catholic Public Domain Version
And they have served foreign gods, and adored them, though they did not know them, and though they had not been allotted to them.

New American Bible
and they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know and whom he had not apportioned to them.

New Revised Standard Version
They turned and served other gods, worshiping them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them;
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
And they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they had not known, nor had they divided spoils among them;

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And they went and they worked for other gods and worshipped them, gods that they did not know and were not assigned to them:
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that He had not allotted unto them;

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and they went and served other gods, which they knew not, neither did he assign them to them.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Covenant in Moab
25And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known— gods that the LORD had not given to them. 27Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book.…

Cross References
Exodus 32:8
How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

Judges 2:12
Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger,

2 Kings 17:15
They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.

Jeremiah 11:10
They have returned to the sins of their forefathers who refused to obey My words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their fathers.

Jeremiah 19:4
because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

Jeremiah 25:6
Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’

Jeremiah 44:3
because of the evil they have done. They provoked Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew.

Hosea 11:2
But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.

2 Chronicles 7:19-20
But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, / then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

Psalm 106:36-39
They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. / They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. / They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. ...

Isaiah 1:4
Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

Isaiah 65:11
But you who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,

1 Corinthians 10:20
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

Romans 1:21-23
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. / Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, / and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Acts 7:41-42
At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands. / But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?


Treasury of Scripture

For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given to them:

they went

Judges 2:12,13
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger…

Judges 5:8
They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

2 Kings 17:7-18
For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, …

gods whom

Deuteronomy 28:64
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

whom he had, etc.

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Deuteronomy 29
1. Moses exhorts them to obedience, reminding of the works they had seen
10. All are presented before the Lord to enter into his covenant
18. The great wrath on him who flatters himself in his wickedness
29. Secret things belong unto God














They went and served other gods
This phrase highlights the Israelites' deliberate action of turning away from Yahweh to serve other deities. The Hebrew word for "served" is עָבַד (avad), which implies not just worship but also enslavement or bondage. This indicates a voluntary submission to false gods, which is a direct violation of the first commandment. Historically, this reflects the recurring temptation for Israel to adopt the religious practices of surrounding nations, which often included idolatry and pagan rituals.

and they worshiped gods they had not known
The Hebrew word for "worshiped" is שָׁחָה (shachah), meaning to bow down or prostrate oneself. This act of worship signifies reverence and submission. The phrase "gods they had not known" underscores the foreignness and unfamiliarity of these deities to the Israelites. It suggests a betrayal of the covenant relationship with Yahweh, who had revealed Himself to them in a personal and powerful way. The historical context here is crucial, as the Israelites were surrounded by nations with a pantheon of gods, each with its own cultic practices.

gods that the LORD had not given to them
This phrase emphasizes the exclusivity of Yahweh's covenant with Israel. The Hebrew word for "given" is נָתַן (natan), which means to give, bestow, or appoint. The implication is that Yahweh had not appointed these other gods for Israel's worship. This highlights the divine initiative in establishing a relationship with His people, where He alone is to be their God. Theologically, this underscores the concept of divine election and the unique identity of Israel as a people set apart for Yahweh. The historical backdrop includes the giving of the Law at Sinai, where Yahweh explicitly forbade the worship of other gods.

(26) Whom he had not given.--The latter clause may be a change from plural to singular. "They went and served other gods, gods whom they knew not, and none of whom gave them any portion."

Verse 26. - Gods... whom he had not given unto them (cf. Deuteronomy 4:19).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They went
וַיֵּלְכ֗וּ (way·yê·lə·ḵū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

and served
וַיַּֽעַבְדוּ֙ (way·ya·‘aḇ·ḏū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5647: To work, to serve, till, enslave

other
אֲחֵרִ֔ים (’ă·ḥê·rîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 312: Hinder, next, other

gods,
אֱלֹהִ֣ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

and they worshiped
וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּ֖וּ‪‬ (way·yiš·ta·ḥăw·wū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 7812: To depress, prostrate

gods
אֱלֹהִים֙ (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

they had not
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

known—
יְדָע֔וּם (yə·ḏā·‘ūm)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural | third person masculine plural
Strong's 3045: To know

gods that [the LORD] had not
וְלֹ֥א (wə·lō)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

given
חָלַ֖ק (ḥā·laq)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2505: To be smooth, to apportion, separate

to them.
לָהֶֽם׃ (lā·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew


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OT Law: Deuteronomy 29:26 And went and served other gods (Deut. De Du)
Deuteronomy 29:25
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