Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 7:5

"But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire." — Deuteronomy 7:5 (ASV)

You shall destroy their altars.... — This course, if adopted in a conquered territory, would be certain to bring matters to a crisis. The inhabitants must rise in defense of the objects of their worship—a course which would end in their extermination—or they must adopt the worship of Jehovah.

Their groves. —Here the grove itself in which the idol was worshipped, and so in Deuteronomy 16:21. Sometimes the word is used for the image.

Burn their graven images with fire. —David treated the images of the Philistines thus (1 Chronicles 14:12). Compare Isaiah 37:19.