Leviticus 26:1

Verse 1. To adore it. This explains the prohibition of making graven things, and so forth The Protestants translate as usual, “Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear ye up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it.” They seem terribly afraid of images, as if they were all idols. See Exodus 20:4. Bible.—Pillars. Hebrew mattseba, “statue, or monument.” Such were erected by Jacob, Josue, and even by Moses himself, without any offence or danger of idolatry. Genesis 28:18. Joshua 4:4. Exodus 24:4. Apuleius (Flor.) makes mention, among other species of superstition, “of a stone anointed, and of an altar crowned with flowers.”—The stone, which is here condemned, is one set up “for adoration.” Onkelos.—Hebrew “a stone of sight,” placed on some eminence, or on the high roads. Strabo, (xvii.) speaking of those which he had seen in Egypt along the roads, says, “they are lofty, polished, and almost like a sphere, some 12 feet in diameter. There are sometimes three, of different dimensions, one upon another. Some were to be seen upon Mount Libanus. They were objects of adoration.” The Greeks raised heaps of stones on the high roads, in honour of Mercury. Proverbs 26:7. Calmet.—We are not forbidden to place land-marks, and so forth: but we must not adore them. D.