Deuteronomy 4:16

16 lest ye marre youre selues and make you grauen ymages after what soeuer likenesse it be: whether after the likenesse of ma or woma

Deuteronomy 4:16 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:16

Lest ye corrupt yourselves
And not themselves only, but the word and worship of God, by idolatry, than which nothing is more corrupting and defiling, nor more abominable to God:

and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure;
a graven image, in the likeness of any figure, an idea of which they had formed in their minds;

the likeness of male or female;
of a man or a woman; so some of the Heathen deities were in the likeness of men, as Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Apollo and others in the likeness of women, as Juno, Diana, Venus Some think Osiris and Isis, Egyptian deities, the one male, the other female, are respected; but it is not certain that these were worshipped by them so early.

Deuteronomy 4:16 In-Context

14 And the Lorde commaunded me the same season to teache you ordynaunces and lawes, for to doo them in the londe whether ye goo to possesse it
15 Take hede vnto youre selues diligently as pertayninge vnto youre soules, for ye sawe no maner of ymage the daye when the Lorde spake vnto you in Horeb out of the fire:
16 lest ye marre youre selues and make you grauen ymages after what soeuer likenesse it be: whether after the likenesse of ma or woma
17 or any mane beest that is on the erth or of any maner fetherred foule that fleth in the ayre,
18 or of any maner worme that crepeth on the erth or of any maner fysh that is in the water beneth the erth:
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