kill those idols!

Depending on the version of the Bible you have, Numbers 33:52 says something along the lines of, "drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places".

As we were working through this chapter as a team, I noticed that the second sentence seemed to begin with "Kill their idols...". I am often discovering new nuances of meaning in words I know the usual meaning of, so I asked tentatively "Can that verb be used in this context?" The translators answered with a very definite yes. I persisted, "But – maybe I just don't know the meaning well – I thought this verb was like 'tuer' in French?" Yes, they said, that was right. "Then, um..." "Unless of course they don't have any living animals at all among their idols!" one of the translators supplied.

A lightbulb went on for me, and I realised that when I think of idols, I always think of "carved images" and "cast idols", perhaps representing a real spiritual force but without flesh and blood. Yet of course here in Benin, some people believe that spirits live in certain creatures (snakes, for example) and so a temple might contain several live snakes believed to be inhabited by the spirits served.

So I pointed out that if you read the verse carefully, quite clearly this was not talking about living creatures but only about the man-made representations of the idols, and that therefore a verb like "destroy" was more appropriate.

This is an example where the Monkolé word "iwɛ̃" is the right one to translate "idol" yet may have connotations which lead to misunderstanding of the situation. By the grace of God, we will iron out as many of these "wrinkles" as possible as we work through the text.