Leviticus 26:1

Ye shall make you no idols, &c.— For the word rendered idols, see on ch. Leviticus 19:4. For the word rendered standing image, see Exodus 34:13. The words rendered, image of stone, are, in the Hebrew, משׁכית אבן eben mashkit, a stone of fixing; i.e. a stone fixed, or set up. Some suppose, with the margin of our English Bibles, that the words signify a pictured stone, like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some perfections of their gods: but it is most probable the sacred writer means, by forbidding pillars, and fixed stones, to forbid the superstitious use of those obelisks and pillars, which, in the ruder times of idolatry, were erected to the honour of the sun, moon, and stars; and which were of different forms, sometimes pyramidical, sometimes plain square stones, well known among the Greeks by the name βεθυλια : and it is probable that this practice was derived from an imitation of the true worshippers; see Genesis 28:18. Jablonski has traced the origin of these pillars in the very curious and learned Prolegomena, cap. 2: sect. 33 prefixed to his Pantheon, to which we refer. We may just observe, that the sacred writer being about to give solemn promises and denunciations to his people, by way of enforcing all the foregoing precepts, prefaces them by a recapitulation of the two laws which peculiarly distinguished the Israelites: the abhorrence of idolatry, and the observation of the sabbath; each alike calculated to preserve and enforce the worship of the true God.