Deuteronomy 4:25

25 When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God's eyes and provoking his anger -

Deuteronomy 4:25 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:25

When thou shall beget children, and children's children
Children and grandchildren, and several ages and generations have passed:

and shalt have remained long in the land;
many years and even ages, or have grown old F8 in it: now they were in their infancy, and as such they were about to enter into it; during the times of the judges, they were in their childhood, or youth; in the times of David and Solomon, they were in their manhood; after that, in their decline; and in the times of Jeconiah and his brethren in their old age, when for their sins they were carried captive:

and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness
of anything; (See Gill on Deuteronomy 25:16).

and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke
him to anger;
that sin of idolatry, that God provoking sin, is chiefly intended.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Mtnvwn) "inveteraveritis", Montanus: "veteres facti fueritis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "senueritis", Vatablus.

Deuteronomy 4:25 In-Context

23 So stay alert. Don't for a minute forget the covenant which God, your God, made with you. And don't take up with any carved images, no forms of any kind - God, your God, issued clear commands on that.
24 God, your God, is not to be trifled with - he's a consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 When the time comes that you have children and grandchildren, put on years, and start taking things for granted, if you then become corrupt and make any carved images, no matter what their form, by doing what is sheer evil in God's eyes and provoking his anger -
26 I can tell you right now, with Heaven and Earth as witnesses, that it will be all over for you. You'll be kicked off the land that you're about to cross over the Jordan to possess. Believe me, you'll have a very short stay there. You'll be ruined, completely ruined.
27 God will scatter you far and wide; a few of you will survive here and there in the nations where God will drive you.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.