---
title: Leviticus 26:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/leviticus-26-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/leviticus-26-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Leviticus 26:1
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Leviticus 26:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "You must not make worthless gods for yourselves, and you must not set up a carved image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and you must not put a stone figure in your land in order to bow down toward it; for I am Jehovah your God."

## JW Usage

Reasoning From the Scriptures (pp. 183-187) cites this verse alongside Exodus 20:4-5 and 1 John 5:21 to argue that all religious imagery is forbidden — not only worshipped idols but any image of Christian content. Crosses, nativity scenes, paintings of Jesus, and stained-glass windows are read as violations of the same prohibition Moses delivered to Israel. The argument leans heavily on the breadth of the categories named in the verse — "worthless gods," "carved image," "sacred pillar," "stone figure" — read as a sweeping ban on representational art in a worship setting.

## Protestant Usage

Read the verse with its purpose clause attached: "you must not put a stone figure in your land in order to bow down toward it." The forbidden activity is bowing — cultic devotion. The same Torah that gives this command also commands Moses to make a bronze serpent (Numbers 21:8) and Solomon to carve cherubim, palm trees, and oxen throughout the temple (1 Kings 6:29, 7:25). The bronze serpent stood for seven hundred years without being destroyed — Hezekiah crushed it only when Israel began burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:4). The Watchtower's own Insight on the Scriptures admits that Hezekiah destroyed it "because the people had made an idol of it." The principle is worship, not representation. A cross on a wall that nobody bows to is not what Leviticus 26:1 forbids; an idol receiving incense is.

## NWT Issue

The NWT expands the prohibition's vocabulary in ways that load it for argumentative use. Hebrew elilim becomes "worthless gods" (consensus: "idols"); matzevah becomes "sacred pillar" (consensus: "pillar" or "standing stone"); maskit becomes "stone figure" (ESV: "figured stone"; NASB: "carved stone"). The expansion is not strictly mistranslation — each rendering is defensible — but the cumulative effect of stronger English vocabulary is a verse that reads more like a sweeping image-ban than the cultic-bowing prohibition the Hebrew specifies. When read in the rs argument the NWT's choice does measurable work.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) — Numbers 21:8 / 2 Kings 18:4 / Exodus 25:18 [Practice]