Bible Verses About Idolatry

God said to Ya'akov, "Get up, go up to Beit-El and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled 'Esav your brother."

Then Ya'akov said to his household and all the others with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have with you, purify yourselves, and put on fresh clothes.

We're going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went."

They gave Ya'akov all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they were wearing, and Ya'akov buried them under the pistachio tree near Sh'khem.

Then God said all these words: t

"I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. c

"You are to have no other gods before me.

You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.

You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, ADONAI your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

When the people saw that Moshe was taking a long time to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aharon and said to him, "Get busy; and make us gods to go ahead of us; because this Moshe, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt - we don't know what has become of him."

Aharon said to them, "Have your wives, sons and daughters strip off their gold earrings; and bring them to me."

The people stripped off their gold earrings and brought them to Aharon.

He received what they gave him, melted it down, and made it into the shape of a calf. They said, "Isra'el! Here is your god, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!"

On seeing this, Aharon built an altar in front of it and proclaimed, "Tomorrow is to be a feast for ADONAI."

Early the next morning they got up and offered burnt offerings and presented peace offerings. Afterwards, the people sat down to eat and drink; then they got up to indulge in revelry.

Isra'el stayed at Sheetim, and there the people began whoring with the women of Mo'av.

These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, where the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

With Isra'el thus joined to Ba'al-P'or, the anger of ADONAI blazed up against Isra'el.

"Therefore, watch out for yourselves! Since you did not see a shape of any kind on the day ADONAI spoke to you in Horev from the fire,

do not become corrupt and make yourselves a carved image having the shape of any figure - not a representation of a human being, male or female,

or a representation of any animal on earth, or a representation of any bird that flies in the air,

or a representation of anything that creeps along on the ground, or a representation of any fish in the water below the shoreline.

For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them; ADONAI your God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky.

"If there is found among you, within any of your gates [in any city] that ADONAI your God gives you, a man or woman who does what ADONAI your God sees as wicked, transgressing his covenant

by going and serving other gods and worshipping them, the sun, the moon, or anything in the sky - something I have forbidden -