Exodus 20:23 (DRB)

Passage

You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold.

Nearby Context

Exodus 20:21 And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud wherein God was.

Exodus 20:22 And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

Exodus 20:23 You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold.

Exodus 20:24 You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.

Exodus 20:25 And if thou make an altar of stone unto me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool upon it, it shall be defiled.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "make", "gods", "silver", and "yourselves". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "make", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "And the Lord said to Moses Thus..." into verse 24's "You shall make an altar of earth...", so "shall" and "make" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "make" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.