Deuteronomy 4:18

18 a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that [is] in the water {below} the earth.

Deuteronomy 4:18 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:18

The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground
As serpents by many; and indeed that creature is introduced into almost all the idolatries of the Heathens, which seems to take its rise from the serpent Satan made use of to deceive our first parents:

the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth;
as the crocodile and hippopotamus, or river horse, by the Egyptians; and Dagon and Derceto, supposed to be figures in the form of a fish, among the Phoenicians.

Deuteronomy 4:18 In-Context

16 so that you [do] not {ruin yourselves} and make for yourselves a divine image [in] a form of any image, a replica of male or female,

17 a replica of any animal that [is] upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air,

18 a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that [is] in the water {below} the earth.

19 {And do this so that you do not lift} your eyes [toward] heaven and {observe} the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all [of] the peoples under all [of] the heaven.

20 But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, {as it is this day}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "under"