Numbers Chapter 33 verse 52 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 52. - Ye shall drive out. The Hebrew word (from יָרַשׁ) is the same which is translated "dispossess" in the next verse. The Septuagint has in both cases ἀπολεῖτε, supplying (like the A.V.) the word "inhabitants" in verse 53. The Hebrew word, however, seems to have much the same sense as the English phrase "clear out," and is, therefore, equally applied to the land and the occupants of it. No doubt it implies extermination as a necessary condition of the clearance. Their pictures. מַשְׂכִּלֺיּתָם. Septuagint, τὰς σκοπιὰς αὐτῶν, (their outlooks, or high places). The Targums of Onkelos and Palestine have "the houses of their worship;" the Targum of Jerusalem has "their idols." The same word occurs in Leviticus 26:1, in the phrase אֵבֶן מַשְׂכִּית, which is usually rendered "a stone image," i.e., a stone shaped into some likeness of man. If so, מַשְׂכִּית by itself has probably the same meaning; at any rate it can hardly be "a picture," nor is there the least evidence that the art of painting was at all practiced among the rude tribes of' Canaan. The same word, maskith, is indeed found in Ezekiel 8:12 in connection with "gravings" (from חָקַק; cf. Isaiah 22:16; Isaiah 49:18 with Ezekiel 4:1; Ezekiel 23:14) on a wall; but even this belonged to a very different age. Their molten images, צַלְמֵי מַסֵּכֹתָם, "images cast of brass." Septuagint, τὰ εἰδωλα τὰ χονευτά The word tselem is only elsewhere used in the Pentateuch for that "likeness" which is reproduced in Divine creation (Genesis 1:26, 27; Genesis 9:6) or in human generation (Genesis 5:3); in the later books, however (especially in Daniel), it is freely used for idols. On "massakah," see on Exodus 32:4; Isaiah 30:22. Their high places. בָמוֹתָם. See on Leviticus 26:30. The Septuagint translates Bamoth in both places by στῆλαι, and of course it was not the high places themselves, which were simply certain prominent elevations, but the monuments (of whatever kind) which superstition had erected upon them, which were to be plucked down. As a fact, it would seem that the Jews, instead of obeying this command, appropriated the Bamoth to their own religious uses (cf. 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Kings 3:2; Psalm 78:58, etc.). The natural result was, as in all similar cases, that not only the Bamoth, but very many of the superstitions and idolatries connected with them, were taken over into the service of the Lord.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(52) And destroy all their pictures.--The word which is here rendered "pictures" denotes "imagery," or "engraved figures." In Leviticus 26:1 the material named is stone--"a stone of imagery," i.e., a stone which has been formed into an idol. (Comp. Exodus 34:13, where, however, a different word is used for " images.")All their high places.--Hebrew, bamoth. The reference here is probably to the altars which were frequently erected on the high places. (Comp. Numbers 22:41, where Balaam is brought by Balak "up into the high places of Baal.")