abraham destroyed idols bible verse

It is the Torah of God, turning its face to Torah students in every generation. 13Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers [g]under the authority of Conaniah and his brother Shimei by the appointment of King Hezekiah, and (O)Azariah was the chief officer of the house of God. See:The Guide of the Perplexed, 1:1. [b](P) 23Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 3He also appointed (D)the kings portion of his property for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed festivals, (E)as it is written in the Law of the Lord. [27]See Rambam,Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentence, 3:7. [5]A lot has been written about the principle of the slippery slope. See, for example, the essay by Yuval Cherlow, Halacha and the Slippery Slope,Akdamut23 (5769): 33-48 [Hebrew]. What if only thirty can be found there?, He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there., 31Abraham said, Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?, He said, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it., 32Then he said, May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. Because of the signs in the heavens that were associated with his birth Nimrod tried to kill him at that time. Start for FREE. Abraham at last thought he would teach his father a lesson by making a clean sweep of his gods. [24]See, for example, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman,The Bible Unearthed: Archaeologys New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts(Touchstone, 2002). [23]My view here stands in stark contrast with that of Rav Kook, who criticizes the ahistorical approach to biblical narratives. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. Why did God choose to limit the divine creative impulse to the (apparently) inadequate framework of narrative? Save 15% for life! You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. I am not surprised, therefore, at the literary prowessvery much like human literary prowessdemonstrated in Torah by its author. Many in Maimonides generation believed that the existence of God was coterminous with Gods physical existence. 25 And his mother did so, and she fetched a kid, and made savory meat thereof, and brought it to Abram, and Abram took the savory meat from his mother and brought it before his fathers gods, and he drew nigh to them that they might eat; and Terah his father, did not know of it. So Nimrod declares they worship wind. If he had possessed the spirit which his son had, he would have said there is no power with these gods; but he did not, and Abraham had to flee from his fathers house, confiding in the Lord, who gave many promises to him and concerning his posterity. 12-26 [Hebrew] and afterwards in his book.Pirkei Moadot(Jerusalem, 5746), p. 22 [Hebrew]. Psalms 135:15 - 127:17 - The idols of the . [13] The sacred written Torah is the teaching of God and it is forbidden to learn it indifferently. An event with significant import to the wider population that is never reported will end up being known by only a handful of people who witnessed it.[12]. 32 And he called out and said, Wo unto my father and this wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve these idols of wood and stone which can neither eat, smell, hear nor speak, who have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands without feeling, and legs which cannot move; like them are those that made them and that trust in them. New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. 2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. Over the years, the interpretive tradition has taken this statement far out of its original meaning, which refers to the way a person is to behave on the night of the 15thof Nissan, and turned it into a key phrase describing Jewish consciousness in general. It is thou that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and then sayest he smote them all. Rabbi Yehudah said: It applies even to unclean animals. Rabbi Yehudah said to them: But wasnt the sciatic nerve forbidden to the sons of Jacob, and they were permitted to eat unclean animals! They said to him: The law was stated at Sinai but was included in its proper place. For a summary of the issues surrounding pre-Sinaitic rules, see the entry in theEncylopedia Talmudit, One may not learn [rules] from the time before the giving of the Torah, (vol. Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. However, in this case, God was testing the obedience and faith of Abraham. Of course, great challenges to Abram's faith lay ahead on his life's journey. Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. ), or adding matres lectionis (). the literary character. Nimrod 's Humble Heritage. It is one that any person who wishes to renew his or her faithperhaps even to limit its horizons for a timeshould take to heart. Each one of them said, I will eat first until the largest of them picked up the staff and shattered the others. [Terah] responded: Why are you trying to fool me? In verse 7 God said the covenant He established with Abraham was to be everlasting and that He alone was to be God to Abraham and his offspring. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. He was looking forward. script>. His analysis deals with how in modern times, Abraham came to be seen as the only monotheist. Nevertheless, this possibility brings to mind the old joke about the elephant and the ant. If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. , was an idol-maker and merchant in Ur.1 Terah. Designed using Unos Premium. The first and simplest is, What the Torah says about the event is what is important. The second is shorter but sharper, What the Torah says is what is important.. 14 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). Nimrod the mighty hunter was one of the sons of Kush. Abram Rescues Lot. This point can be expressed in two different ways. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. 21Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in the Law and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and (X)prospered. (C) 18Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation,(D) and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. Abraham married them according to the Book of Genesis). An ahistorical Torah is not subject to being disproven by archaeology or academic historical reconstructions. Intuitive attachment to our inherited traditions is common to all people, regardless of education. 35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. Berean Standard Bible Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles. Hebrews 11:10 says of Abram: "He was awaiting the city having real foundations, the builder and maker of which city is God.". 15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue[ a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of 55 Dost thou imagine that they can deliver thee or do anything small or great, that thou shouldst serve them? This second approach, in my opinion, works well with what seems to be occurring in the biblical narratives. Lord. [17]There are those who point out that it is precisely if one assumes that Torah relates historical events that comparison with similar accounts in the Ancient Near East make sense. Abraham took a stick and shattered all the idols in the store, and then he placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. So Nimrod declares they worship water. Take the flood story, for example. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. 10Azariah, the chief priest (K)of the house of Zadok, said to [f]him, (L)Since the contributions started coming into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat with plenty left over, for the Lord has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over.. window.location.replace(""); The text designates Terah, Abraham's father, as a "manufacturer of idols." One day, while Terah is away from his workshop, he entrusts it to young Abraham. Why is Abraham is cutting up all these animals in Genesis 15? Abraham responds that people withstand wind. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. can they deliver thee from the hands of thy enemies, or will they fight thy battles for thee against thy enemies, that thou shouldst serve wood and stone which can neither speak nor hear? The consequence was, his father and the idolatrous priests of that day sought to take his life. 57 I thought thou wouldst teach thy servants the upright way, but thou hast not done this, but hast filled the whole earth with thy sins and the sins of thy people who have followed thy ways. The idols argued about which one should eat the offering first, then the largest idol took the stick and smashed all the other idols. F. Gibbs. 20Hezekiah did this throughout Judah; and (W)he did what was good, right, and true before the Lord his God. Recounting the Census: A Military Force of 5,500 (not 603,550) Men, Reconstructionism Reconciles Rationalism and Revelation, Rabbi Chiyya said: Terah was an idol worshiper. This is something best accomplished by narrative, not by list of laws or principles. (U) Far be it from you! 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. 16 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. 12They faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the consecrated things; and Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge (N)of them, and his brother Shimei was second. Abraham and the Idol Shop is a midrash that appears in Genesis Rabbah chapter 38. Will you really sweep it away and not spare[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? went away on a journey, and he left Abraham in charge of the store. 31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. Thus, we can say that there is no reason not to ascribe great literary prowess to God. A woman enters to offer food to the idols. Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. [2]For a discussion of the phenomenon of filling the gaps see Yonah Frankel,Midrash ve-Aggada, (5753), 41 [Hebrew]. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. (Joshua 24:2), there is no Biblical record of him actually making Start your free trial today! 48 Now therefore my father refrain from this, and bring not evil upon thy soul and the souls of thy household. The main purpose of contracts and newspapers, for example, is to translate the real worldwhere a deal was struck or something worth describing occurredinto writing. [1] Many commentaries throughout the generations have taken up this question; see, for example, Ramban on Genesis 11:28 and Maharal of Prague inNetzah Yisrael, ch. From whence sprang the suggestion to interpret the Torah against the way it has been read? This claim, however, can be countered by making recourse to the premise of comparative literature, where it is one and the same whether a given story has a historical basis or not: comparison between texts always offers useful and challenging insights. Thus, such a God can be greater than any image of a god based upon said Gods great size and dimensions as envisioned by those who assume that God is physical. Some critics of the Bible point to the story of Abraham, who laid his son Isaac on an altar and prepared to sacrifice him as directed by God (Genesis 22:1-14). But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem . idols of any kind. Ep 200 | Luke 12-17; John 11, Come Follow Me 2023 (May 1-7), Ep 199 | John 7-10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 24-30), Ep 198 | Matthew 18; Luke 10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 17-23), Ep 197 | Matthew 15-17; Mark 7-9, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 10-16), Ep 196 | Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5-6, Come Follow Me 2023 (March 27-April 2). [29]Continuing on with the example from Rambam with which we began: stating that God lacks any body means that God is not constrained by any physical limitation. Please support us. ),Shitat ha-Beinot shel ha-Rav Mordechai Breuer: Qovetz Maamarim u-Teguvot(Alon Shevut: Tevunot, 2005). [16] Only from the time of its inclusion in the Sinai covenant could a given law become the Archimedean point for the spiritual makeup of a person. TheTorah.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.We rely on the support of readers like you. Would you like updates when content is posted? Can these idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? And yet, even as a boy, I knew I was missing something. what are the 3 odd numbers just before 200 003? Thus, whenever a question arises about something written, our goal would be to try and get as close as we can to reproducing the event as it occurred, to analyze the event itself, if possible, in order to learn what really happened. We would not shy away from reading alternative descriptions of the event, even contradictory ones, and compare these versions to the one we have in our hands. Ge 22:12, 18; 26:5; 2Sa 8:15; Ps 17:2; 99:4; Jer 23:5, Ex 23:7; Lev 4:3, 22, 27; Nu 16:22; Dt 27:25; 2Sa 24:17; Ps 11:4-7; 94:21; Eze 18:4; 2Pe 2:9, Jdg 11:27; Job 9:15; Ps 7:11; 94:2; Heb 12:23, Ge 20:4; Dt 32:4; 2Ch 19:7; Ezr 9:15; Ne 9:33; Job 8:3, 20; 34:10; 36:23; Ps 58:11; 75:7; 94:2; 119:137; Isa 3:10-11; Eze 18:25; Da 4:37; 9:14; Mal 2:17; Ro 3:6, NIV, Lucado Encouraging Word Bible, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Story of Jesus: Experience the Life of Jesus as One Seamless Story, NIV, The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People, NIV, Beautiful Word Bible Journal, Galatians, Paperback, Comfort Print, NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Red Letter Edition: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture, NIV, Beautiful Word Bible Journal, Revelation, Paperback, Comfort Print. [10]In my opinion, which is based on multiple encounters with a number of different groups, this critique can be found at the heart of many peoples objections to ahistorical reading of the Torah, and feeds their intuitive rejection of this paradigm. 1, 14:53, p. 163. So Nimrod declares they worship clouds. 31 And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God. Perhaps they even needed to be narrated in exactly the way the Torah itself narrates them. Commentating on this verse, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the late Grand Mufti of Pakistan, writes, "According to Imam Qurtubi, this verse shows that to destroy the idols and other icons of paganism is Waajib (mandatory). There is also a third option, of course, that the Abraham who lived in Ur continued to live in the hearts of Israel. A similar point was made by R. Abraham Kook inEder ha-Yakkar, (Jerusalem, 5726), p. 42. either making or worshiping idols or "other gods.". So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. 6The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and (I)the tithe of [d]sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps. This is a false dichotomy. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children[ a] by her." Will Gods story be diminished if we do not connect it with the actions of specific people, as great as they may have been? One time a woman came carrying a dish of fine flour. This is true even for a person who can digest the nuances of the ahistorical approach to the Torah. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession. It is precisely this struggle with which I attempt to grapple in my book. which benefit does a community experience when its members have a high level of health literacy? 48-49 [Hebrew]. Its meaning is not dependent on external evidence; its narrative descriptions should not be characterized as reconstructions or preservation of past events. 19Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in (U)the pasture lands of their cities, or in each and every city, (V)there were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone genealogically enrolled among the Levites. Psalm 16:4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. "You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. [18] Is it less significant than a partial biography of a given individual, who lived 3500 years ago in some insignificant part of the world? King James Bible But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: New King James Version But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images A business deal that took place before witnesses, but without documentation, can end up being a source of dispute and fraud if the witnesses disappear and never return. why dost thou worship . My suggestion avoids this problem altogether. Exodus 20:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Abraham told him that the gods had had a quarrel among themselves, and, said he, here is the fellow, (pointing to the big one he had spared) that did it. Said the father: My son, why do you tell me such a thing. Abraham went thence to his mother, and he spoke to her, saying: Behold, my father has shown those unto me who made heaven and earth and all the sons of men. Something went wrong while submitting the form. The only similarity that one finds here is Abraham advising his father about the futility of idol worship. Nimrod came from a line which was cursed by Noah: "Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be unto his brothers." By birth, Nimrod had no right to be a king or ruler. 18The genealogical enrollment included [k]all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, for the whole assembly, for they consecrated themselves [l]faithfully in holiness. Therefore I will prepare fresh savory meat to-morrow, better and more plentiful than this, that I may see what cometh therefrom. But the gods remained mute and without motion before the second offering of excellent savory meat as before the first offering, and the spirit of God came over Abraham, and he cried out, and said: Woe unto my father and his wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve these idols of wood and stone, which cannot eat, nor smell, nor hear, nor speak, which have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands without feeling, and legs without motion!, Abraham then took a hatchet in his hand, and broke all his fathers gods, and when he had done breaking them he placed the hatchet in the hand of the biggest god among them all, and he went out. 41 And Terahs anger was kindled against his son Abram, when he spoke this; and Terah said to Abram his son in his anger, What is this tale that thou hast told? [19] The various literary layers identified by biblical scholars in the text do not contradict its status as divine. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. And Abram hastened and went from the chamber to his fathers outer court, and he found his father sitting in the court, and all his servants with him, and Abram came and sat before him. 5. 19 And Abram asked his father, saying, Father, tell me where is God who created heaven and earth, and all the sons of men upon earth, and who created thee and me. 41). 33 And when Abram saw all these things his anger was kindled against his father, and he hastened and took a hatchet in his hand, and came unto the chamber of the gods, and he broke all his fathers gods. 60 And if thy wicked heart will not hearken to my words to cause thee to forsake thy evil ways, and to serve the eternal God, then wilt thou die in shame in the latter days, thou, thy people and all who are connected with thee, hearing thy words or walking in thy evil ways. Therefore, it is the job of the historian to tell his or her story about history. In essence, we exchange a conversation about God for an encounter with God. Abraham). The believer who adopts this narrative wishes to engage it directly. Therefore, by necessity we would need to distill from his historical persona what parts of his life were his own choice, (i.e. 1, p. 164: Tamar Ross makes great use of this principle, primarily in dealing with the feminist critique of Torah. 17 And Abram said, As the Lord liveth these images shall not remain in my fathers house; so shall the Lord who created me do unto me if in three days time I do not break them all. The fervent attempt to capture some meaning in each and every word of the Torah, without making recourse to any external factors as a control, is a clear expression of this perspective. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. (Q) 24What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? 8When Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and (J)His people Israel. "Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. 16When the men(A) got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Will not the Judge(V) of all the earth do right?(W), 26The Lord said, If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. [20] Moreover, even if the Torah had been written from one perspective only, in one clear and flowing style, that would not have proven that it came from God. Among the many events described in the book of Genesis, there are a handful that carry with them a mitzvahrequirementthe circumcision of Abraham (Gen. 17) and the injuring of Jacobs sciatic nerve (Gen. 32:25-33), for instance. They meant the world to me and taught me crucial lessons. On the other hand, Haran needed to see that Abraham would be saved by God before believing, and because of this, Haran was not saved from the fire by God. As our rabbis taught us, all is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven (b. Berachot 33b); even the historical Abraham would have to fit into this rubric. Nimrod proclaims to Abraham that we should worship fire. See:The Complete Works of Achad Ha-Am(Tel Aviv, 1947), p. 342 [Hebrew]. Idols Are Destroyed 31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the memorial stones in pieces, cut down the [ a]Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until [ b]they had destroyed them all. Nevertheless, such an opportunity would be limited. Although the Bible says Terah "worshiped other gods" NASB, Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Red Letter Edition, NASB, Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, 2nd Edition, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New American Standard Bible, NASB, Super Giant Print Reference Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Large Print, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print. 21. In many ways, the challenge faced by such a person is similar to the one faced by Rambam when he tried and demonstrate to the world that God has no body. In their understanding, the written text is not there to convey an event; it is the event itself. Rav Kook, in his analysis of this approach, found that Rambam made use of it as he wrestled with Aristotles notion of an eternal universe. As such, writing is secondary to the event itself. Does the Torahs Abraham really need the historical Abraham in order to claim an important role in Jewish religious consciousness? 38 And he found Abram his son still sitting in the house; and he said to him, What is this work thou hast done to my gods? 11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare (M)rooms in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. The interpretive strategy of the accepted rendition is paramount emphasizes the importance of our mediated encounter with the text, the reading that I was taught by my teacher, and he his teacher, going all the way back to the law given to Moses at Sinai. In short, the tradition is of utmost value. Enter code SPRINGSTUDY15 and have answers to your Bible questions at your fingertips. God stopped him from actually following . These were the feelings of Abraham, and he taught his father's house, and all around him, as far as he had the privilege. This is the meaning of the phrase, In every generation a person must look upon himself as if he left Egypt.[14], This perspective is reflected in the world of halacha as well. Although Hajar is Abraham's second wife she is the first to bear him a son, Ishmael.

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