The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Idolatry Forbidden
Exodus 20:22–26 — Idolatry Forbidden. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
22Then the LORD said to Moses, “This is what you are to tell the Israelites: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- mō·šeh kōh ṯō·mar ’el- bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl ’at·tem rə·’î·ṯem kî dib·bar·tî ‘im·mā·ḵem min- haš·šā·ma·yim
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-YHWH said to Moses: thus you-shall-say to the-sons-of Israel — you yourselves have-seen that from the-heavens I-have-spoken with-you.”
Where the English smooths the original
It was important to identify the giver of the Book of the Covenant with the deliverer of the Ten Commandments, and accordingly this was done in the opening words of the Book.
from heaven ] As their position in the Heb. shews, these are the emphatic words in the sentence: their intention is to shew that the Israelites’ God is exalted far above the earth, and that consequently ( v. 23) no material gods are to be venerated by them.The note ties v. 22 directly to the prohibition of v. 23 — the basis of the synthesized reading.
Ye have seen, i.e. heard, as Exodus 20:18 . He may use the word seen here, to intimate that this was all they could see of God, to wit, his voice and speech, and that they saw no image of him, as is expressed in a parallel place, and therefore should make no resemblances of him, as it here follows.
"From heaven" Jehovah came down upon Sinai enveloped in the darkness of a cloud; and thereby He made known to the people that His nature was heavenly, and could not be imitated in any earthly material.
Nothing could be more appropriate as the commencement of the book of the covenant than these regulations for public worship. The rules for the building of altars must have been old and accepted, and are not inconsistent with the directions for the construction of the altar of the court of the tabernacle, Exodus 27:1-8 (compare Joshua 22:26-28 ).Barnes notes the altar-rules were 'old and accepted' even at Sinai — and points to Joshua 22:26–28, where the Transjordan tribes build a witness-altar, as the same altar-tradition in later use.
23You are not to make any gods alongside Me; you are not to make for yourselves gods of silver or gold.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō ṯa·‘ă·śūn ’ĕ·lō·hê ’it·tî lō ṯa·‘ă·śū lā·ḵem wê·lō·hê ḵe·sep̄ zā·hāḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“You-shall-not make gods with-Me; gods-of silver or gods-of gold you-shall-not make for-yourselves.”
Where the English smooths the original
"Ye shall not make with Me," place by the side of, or on a par with Me," "gods of silver and gold," - that is to say, idols primarily intended to represent the nature of God, and therefore meant as symbols of Jehovah, but which became false gods from the very fact that they were intended as representations of the purely spiritual God.
Gods of silver and gods of gold are specially forbidden, because it was to idolatry of this kind that the Israelites were specially inclined. The golden calf is no isolated phenomenon.
as it is apparent that the Israelites afterwards did intend to worship Jehovah in the golden calf, and therefore Aaron calls the feast of the calf a feast to Jehovah , Exodus 32:5Poole supplies the canonical proof that idolatry “with Me” — worshipping Yahweh through an image — is precisely the calf episode.
This is a repetition, in part, of the second commandment, and can only be accounted for by the prohibition being specially needed. The first idea of the Israelites, when they considered that Moses had deserted them, was to make a golden calf for a god.
this injunction was a conclusion drawn from the scene on Sinai—that as no similitude of God was displayed then, they should not attempt to make any visible figure or form of Him.JFB grounds the no-image law in the bare argument of Deuteronomy 4:14–16: they saw no form, so they may shape none. The complement to Keil's 'with Me' — it bans not only rival gods but any visible likeness of Yahweh Himself.
Molten images of gods, generally of silver, sometimes of gold, were objects of worship to Israel throughout the ages which preceded the Captivity. Jeroboam set up molten images at Dan and BethelEllicott traces the silver-and-gold idolatry forward past the calf — Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Bethel are the same besetting sin institutionalized.
24You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ta·‘ă·śeh- lî miz·baḥ ’ă·ḏā·māh wə·zā·ḇaḥ·tā ‘ā·lāw ’eṯ- ‘ō·lō·ṯe·ḵā wə·’eṯ- šə·lā·me·ḵā ’eṯ- ṣō·nə·ḵā wə·’eṯ- bə·qā·re·ḵā bə·ḵāl ham·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer šə·mî ’az·kîr ’eṯ- ’ā·ḇō·w ’ê·le·ḵā ū·ḇê·raḵ·tî·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“An-altar-of earth you-shall-make for-Me, and-you-shall-sacrifice on-it your-burnt-offerings and-your-peace-offerings, your-flock and-your-herd. In every place where I cause-My-name-to-be-remembered, I-will-come to-you and-I-will-bless-you.”
Where the English smooths the original
That they might not be tempted to think of a graven image, they must not so much as hew the stones into shape that they made their altars of, but pile them up as they were in the rough.
this precept seems to suggest the plainness and simplicity in which God would be worshipped, in opposition to the pomp and gaudy show of idolaters intimated in the preceding verseGill reads the plain earthen altar as a deliberate contrast to idolatrous “pomp and gaudy show”; elsewhere in the same note he carries it (with Ainsworth) to Christ as the altar of Hebrews 13:10 — the seed of the Christ-typology below.
Under the gospel, men are encouraged to pray every where, and wherever God's people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them; there he will come unto them, and will bless them.
I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. The promise is conditional on the observance of the command. If the altars are rightly constructed, and proper victims offered, then, in all places where he allows the erection of an altar, God will accept the sacrifices offered upon it and bless the worshippers.
The rules for the building of altars must have been old and accepted, and are not inconsistent with the directions for the construction of the altar of the court of the tabernacle, Exodus 27:1-8 (compare Joshua 22:26-28 ).Barnes reads the altar-rules as already 'old and accepted' at Sinai and points to Joshua 22:26–28 — the Transjordan tribes' witness-altar — as the same altar-tradition still living in the land.
25Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’im- ta·‘ă·śeh- miz·baḥ ’ă·ḇā·nîm lî lō- ṯiḇ·neh ’eṯ·hen gā·zîṯ kî hê·nap̄·tā ḥar·bə·ḵā ‘ā·le·hā wat·tə·ḥal·le·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-if an-altar-of stones you-make for-Me, you-shall-not build them hewn-stone; for if your-tool you-have-swung over-it, you-have-defiled-it.”
Where the English smooths the original
Nature is God’s handiwork, and, therefore, pure and holy. Man, by contact with it, imparts to it of his impurity. The altar, whereby sin was to be expiated, required to be free from all taint of human corruption.
If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it, by thy disobedience to my express command now given; and howsoever they think to gratify me by this curiosity, I shall not look upon it as a sacred thing, by which the sacrifices offered on it shall be sanctified, but as a profane thing which will defile them. So little doth God value or approve the inventions of men in his worship, how colourable soever they be.
the reason which the Misnic doctors (y) give, and Jarchi from them, is,"because iron was created to shorten the days of men, but the other was made to prolong the days of men: and therefore it cannot be just that that which shortens should be lifted up and agitated over that which prolongsGill preserves the rabbinic reading that the war-iron (chereb, “sword”) is alien to the altar of life.
The real object was that altars should not be elaborately carved with objects that might superinduce idolatry. The widely prevalent notion, that nature is sacred, and that all man's interference with nature is a defilement, was made use of economically , to produce the desired result.
26And you must not go up to My altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.’
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lō- ṯa·‘ă·leh ‘al- miz·bə·ḥî ḇə·ma·‘ă·lōṯ ’ă·šer lō- ‘er·wā·ṯə·ḵā ṯig·gā·leh ‘ā·lāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-you-shall-not go-up by-steps upon My-altar, that not be-uncovered your-nakedness upon-it.”
Where the English smooths the original
It was in the feeling of shame that the consciousness of sin first manifested itself, and it was in the shame that the sin was chiefly apparent ( Genesis 3:7 ); hence the nakedness was a disclosure of sin, through which the altar of God would be desecrated, and for this reason it was forbidden to ascend to the altar by steps.
Indeed afterward God appointed an altar ten cubits high. But it is probable they went not up to that by steps, but by a sloping ascent. The garments worn in those countries, being perfectly loose, were easily blown aside, so as to discover the lower parts of the body
When the dress of the priests had been so arranged that no exposure of the person was possible (verses 42, 43), this precept became unnecessary. Thus it would seem that Solomon’s altar had steps. (Compare 2Chronicles 4:1 with Ezekiel 43:17 .)
Which might be by his stooping or flying up of his clothes.The 1599 gloss on “nakedness be not discovered” — the plainest statement of the law’s decency-concern.
by steps—a precaution taken for the sake of decency, in consequence of the loose, wide, flowing garments of the priests.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
What begins here, Ellicott observes, is “THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT” — a body of law delivered “immediately after the delivery of the Decalogue,” standing “midway between the first great enunciation of abstract principles in the Ten Commandments” and the fuller codes to come. And it opens not with a statute but with a credential: “you yourselves have seen that from the heavens I have spoken with you.” The Pulpit Commentary hears the rhetorical force — “I, who give these laws, am the same who spake the ten commandments amid the thunders of Sinai. Reverence the laws accordingly.” The Hebrew puts its weight on one phrase: Cambridge marks haš·šāmayim, “from heaven,” as “the emphatic words in the sentence.” Poole catches the paradox in the verb — they had seen a voice and no form: “he may use the word seen here, to intimate that this was all they could see of God, to wit, his voice and speech, and that they saw no image of him… and therefore should make no resemblances of him, as it here follows.” The whole logic of the unit is in that pivot.
The first law is the second commandment, re-sounded — and the Pulpit Commentary asks why it should be repeated so soon, answering: “the prohibition being specially needed. The first idea of the Israelites, when they considered that Moses had deserted them, was to make a golden calf for a god.” The Hebrew sharpens the target. Keil & Delitzsch read ’ittî, “with Me,” as “place by the side of, or on a par with Me” — and so the gods of silver and gold are “idols primarily intended to represent the nature of God, and therefore meant as symbols of Jehovah, but which became false gods from the very fact that they were intended as representations of the purely spiritual God.” Poole names the proof from Israel’s own history: Aaron “calls the feast of the calf a feast to Jehovah, Exodus 32:5.” The God who spoke from heaven (v. 22) cannot be cast in earth’s metals; the emphatic “from heaven” and the forbidden “silver and gold” are the two halves of one argument.
After the ban, a provision: “an altar of earth you shall make for Me.” Benson and Gill agree it is occasional and wilderness-bound — “temporary… in force until the tabernacle was built” (Gill) — and deliberately plain: “that they might not be tempted to think of a graven image, they must not so much as hew the stones… but pile them up as they were in the rough” (Benson). Then comes the staggering clause. Cambridge and Keil & Delitzsch both read “in every place where I cause My name to be remembered” as sanctioning many altars, “in any part of the land,” wherever God “make[s] a glorious revelation of His divine nature” (Keil & Delitzsch). And the promise that follows reverses the direction of all pagan worship: not “you will reach up to Me,” but “I will come to you, and I will bless you.” Henry draws the gospel line forward: “wherever God’s people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them.” Gill, citing Ainsworth, dares the typology: this earthen altar is “a figure of the earthly or human nature of Christ, who is the altar, whereof believers in him have a right to eat, Hebrews 13:10.”
If stone is used, it must be raw: “you shall not build them hewn-stone (gāzîṯ); for if you have swung your tool over it, you have defiled it.” Ellicott reaches the heart of it: “The altar, whereby sin was to be expiated, required to be free from all taint of human corruption.” The word for “tool” is chereb, the sword — and Gill preserves the rabbinic reading that iron, “created to shorten the days of men,” has no place over the altar “made to prolong” them. Poole turns it to principle: “So little doth God value or approve the inventions of men in his worship, how colourable soever they be.” The final law (v. 26) guards modesty — no steps, “lest your nakedness be exposed.” Jamieson-Fausset-Brown calls it “a precaution… for the sake of decency,” owing to the priests’ “loose, wide, flowing garments,” and Ellicott notes the law lapsed once linen breeches were prescribed (Exodus 28:42). But Keil & Delitzsch hear something older underneath: nakedness as “a disclosure of sin… through which the altar of God would be desecrated,” reaching back to the shame of Genesis 3:7. From idol to altar to stone to step, the unit holds one thread: God alone sets the terms of His own approach.
Read against the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, this small code of worship-laws says something larger than its five verses. God determines how God is approached. Every clause is a limit on human initiative: no image, even of Yahweh; an altar of unworked earth or raw stone; no blade, no step, no artistry. The repeated logic is that worship is not invented but received — and Poole states the principle bare: God does not “approve the inventions of men in his worship, how colourable soever they be.” That is the regulative impulse in seed: the worshipper does not improve on the revealed pattern. The grace runs the wrong way for paganism. Pagan altars climb toward a distant deity; here the movement is reversed — “I will come to you, and I will bless you” (v. 24). The God who spoke “from heaven” (v. 22) stoops to a heap of dirt to meet His people. And the altar is already pointing past itself. The earthen altar, the unhewn stone untouched by iron, the blood that must not meet a war-blade, the shame that must not be exposed — Gill (with Ainsworth) saw the earthen altar as “a figure of the… human nature of Christ,” and Hebrews 13:10 names a Christian altar of which “those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” Offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted: the rules for drawing near to God in Exodus 20 are the grammar later spoken whole in the cross.
The God who forbade men to climb to Him by steps is the God who came down to meet them on a heap of earth.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The command of vv. 24–25 — an altar for sacrifice, of earth or of unhewn stone — is enacted at Mount Ebal: Joshua “built an altar… an altar of unhewn stones, on which no man had wielded an iron tool,” and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on it (Joshua 8:30–31), in obedience to Deuteronomy 27:5. The link to Joshua 8:31 rests on the altar-and-sacrifice cluster the Verifier records — mizbêach (H4196), zābach (H2076), ʻōlāh (H5930), shelem (H8002). The tie to Deuteronomy 27:5 is closer than the nouns alone: alongside mizbêach and ʼeben (H68), Deut 27:5 reuses the scarce verb of v. 25 — nûp̄ (“swing/wield,” H5130, in only 35 vv) — restating the prohibition “you shall not wield an iron tool over them.” Yet honesty still requires the structural (not verbal) tier: Deut 27:5 and Joshua 8:31 pointedly do not use the rare word gāzîṯ; they say “iron” (barzel). So this is a genuine command-and-fulfillment of one altar pattern — with a distinctive shared verb in the Deuteronomy command — but it reuses motif and verb, not the law’s signature noun, and claims no quotation. Tiered structural / thematic.
Exodus 20:24 · Exodus 20:25 · Deuteronomy 27:5 · Joshua 8:30-31
basis: shared altar/sacrifice cluster H4196 mizbêach, H2076 zâbach (127 vv), H5930 ʻôlâh, H8002 shelem (84 vv) with Joshua 8:31; with Deut 27:5, H4196 + H68 ʼeben PLUS the scarce verb H5130 nûp̄ (35 vv, 'swing/wield') of Ex 20:25 reappearing in the Ebal command (Verifier output, Ex 20:24/25 ↔ Joshua 8:31 and ↔ Deut 27:5). The rare noun gâzîṯ (H1496) is NOT in Deut 27:5 or Josh 8:31, which read 'iron' (barzel) — so motif + shared verb, not quotation. Rightly structural, not verbal.
The scarce word the altar law forbids — gāzîṯ, “dressed stone” (H1496, in only 11 verses across the canon) — has a double afterlife. First, it becomes the very signature of human grandeur: Solomon’s temple and palace are built “with costly stones, hewn stones” (1 Kings 6:36; 7:9–12; 1 Chronicles 22:2), and Ezekiel’s visionary temple sets its altar amid hewn stone (Ezekiel 40:42) — the material refused at the rough wilderness altar is the material chosen for the house of glory, a tension the law leaves standing. Second, in the prophets the same word marks the pride God throws down: Amos indicts those who “have built houses of hewn stone” yet “shall not dwell in them” (Amos 5:11); Isaiah quotes Israel’s defiance, “the bricks have fallen, but we will build with hewn stones” (Isaiah 9:10). Because gāzîṯ is genuinely rare, each of these registers as a real verbal echo of v. 25 — but the later writers reuse the word, they do not cite the altar law, so this is a verbal-echo motif, not a quotation claim.
Exodus 20:25 · 1 Kings 6:36 · Amos 5:11 · Isaiah 9:10 · Ezekiel 40:42
basis: rare shared lexeme H1496 gâzîyth (in only 11 vv) confirmed by Verifier for Ex 20:25 ↔ Amos 5:11, ↔ Isaiah 9:10, ↔ 1 Kings 6:36, ↔ Ezekiel 40:42 (each also shares H1129 bânâh or H68 ʼeben). Low frequency licenses the verbal tier; reuse of the word, not citation of the law
The law of v. 26 forbids the priest’s ‘ervāh (“nakedness,” H6172) from being gālāh (“uncovered,” H1540) at the altar. That precise verb-and-noun pairing becomes the prophets’ fixed idiom for shameful, judicial exposure — as when Ezekiel says of Oholah, “they uncovered her nakedness” (Ezekiel 23:10). Keil & Delitzsch ground the altar-law itself in Genesis 3:7: nakedness as “a disclosure of sin.” The connection is a shared motif and shared vocabulary of shame, not a quotation — the altar law guards against it, the prophet pronounces it — so it is tiered structural / thematic.
Exodus 20:26 · Genesis 3:7 · Ezekiel 23:10
basis: shared lexemes H6172 ʻervâh (in 40 vv) + H1540 gâlâh (in 167 vv), the fixed shame-exposure pairing (Verifier output, Ex 20:26 ↔ Ezekiel 23:10); motif, no quotation claimed
Exodus 20:22 grounds the whole code in the fact that God “spoke from the heavens.” Hebrews picks up the Sinai theophany and contrasts the One who “warned them on earth” with “Him who warns from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25), pressing the greater accountability of those who hear the gospel. Notice the apparent friction: Exodus says God spoke from heaven; Hebrews 12:25 sets the Sinai warning on earth. Poole resolves it by reading haš·šāmayim as “the lower heaven… the air, or the clouds,” explicitly “to reconcile this place with Hebrews 12:25.” That harmonization is one option, not a settled reading — Cambridge by contrast takes “from heaven” as deliberately emphatic of God’s exaltation “far above the earth,” which cuts against Poole’s flattening of the term. The link itself is a cross-Testament one (Greek New Testament reflecting on the Hebrew Sinai narrative); it cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers, so it is tiered structural / thematic — a development of the same speaking-God theme. The Exodus-to-Hebrews bridge is sound; Poole’s particular way of squaring “heaven” with “earth” is flagged as a contested harmonization, not asserted as fact.
Exodus 20:22 · Hebrews 12:18-25
basis: cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong's possible; connection is the shared Sinai-speaking-God theme. Link sound; Poole's 'lower heaven' reconciliation of Ex 20:22 'from heaven' with Heb 12:25 'on earth' is a contested harmonization (Cambridge reads 'from heaven' as emphatic the other way) — flagged, not asserted
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Gill, following Ainsworth, reads the altar of plain earth (v. 24) as “a figure of the earthly or human nature of Christ, who is the altar, whereof believers in him have a right to eat, Hebrews 13:10.” The pattern is suggestive: God meets His people not in gold and silver (v. 23) but in lowly earth — and Hebrews names “an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat” (Hebrews 13:10), the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ “outside the camp.” Held as figural reading, not as a verbal link: the Exodus altar is Hebrew, the Hebrews altar is a Greek theological claim, so no shared-lexeme link exists — the connection is typological, and is the reading of a public-domain commentator (Gill/Ainsworth), not a novel invention.
Exodus 20:24 · Hebrews 13:10
The stone of the altar is defiled the moment a tool touches it (v. 25); Ellicott: “The altar, whereby sin was to be expiated, required to be free from all taint of human corruption.” The figure runs toward the cross: the place of atonement must owe nothing to human craft or contribution. As salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:9), so the altar that prefigures it admits no chisel of human merit — “if you have swung your tool over it, you have defiled it.” This is a figural/typological reading drawn from the law's own logic (a cross-Testament application, no shared lexeme); offered to be tested against the text.
Exodus 20:25 · Ephesians 2:8-9 · Hebrews 9:11-12
The promise embedded in the worship-law reverses every pagan ascent: not man climbing to God, but “I will come to you, and I will bless you” (v. 24). Henry extends it: “wherever God’s people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them; there he will come unto them.” That descent is consummated in the Word made flesh — the God who came down on Sinai (v. 22) and stooped to an earthen altar comes finally as Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), and to the gathered church: “where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). Typological and thematic across the Testaments (no shared-lexeme link possible); the descent-to-bless motif is the ground of the connection.
Exodus 20:24 · Matthew 1:23 · Matthew 18:20
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on Exodus 20:22–26, each attributed in place and linked to its BibleHub source: Ellicott, Matthew Henry (Concise), Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Poole, Gill, the Geneva Study Bible (1599), the Cambridge Bible, the Pulpit Commentary, Keil & Delitzsch, and Benson.
This unit is Hebrew-only; every cross-reference within the Old Testament can in principle rest on shared Strong's lexemes (the Verifier's recorded basis). The two strongest threads turn on the rare word gāzîṯ (“hewn stone,” H1496) — in only 11 verses across the canon — which is what licenses a verbal tier for the Deuteronomy 27:5 / Joshua 8:31 obedience and the Amos 5:11 / Isaiah 9:10 prophetic echo. Lower-frequency lexemes were preferred; the high-frequency lō’ (H3808) and mizbêach (H4196) are noted but never carry a tier alone.
The threads and Christ-readings reaching into the New Testament (Hebrews 12:25; 13:10; Ephesians 2:8–9; Matthew 1:23; 18:20) are cross-Testament (Greek ↔ Hebrew) and therefore cannot use shared Strong's numbers; they are tiered structural / thematic or marked typological, and where a public-domain voice already drew the connection (Poole on Hebrews 12:25; Gill/Ainsworth on Hebrews 13:10) that is stated.
Transliterations, literal renderings, divergence notes, and all synthesis are this tool's own work (⚙) — fallible, and meant to be checked against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and the original text. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)