Deuteronomy 4:17

17 or a likeness of all beasts that be on earth, either of birds flying under heaven, (or a likeness of any beast that is on the earth, or of any bird flying in the sky,)

Deuteronomy 4:17 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:17

The likeness of any beast that is on the earth
As there are scarce any but the likeness of them has been made and worshipped, or the creatures themselves, as the ox by the Egyptians, the sheep by the Thebans, the goat by the Mendesians, and others by different people:

the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air;
as the hawk, and the bird called Ibis, and another by the name of Cneph by the Egyptians, and the eagle by others.

Deuteronomy 4:17 In-Context

15 Therefore keep ye busily your minds; ye saw not any likeness in the day in which the Lord spake to you in Horeb, from the midst of the fire; (And so guard ye your minds; for ye saw not any form, or figure, on the day in which the Lord spoke to you on Mount Sinai, from the midst of the fire;)

16 lest peradventure ye be deceived, and make to you a graven likeness, either an image of male, either female; (lest ye be deceived, and make for yourselves an idol, a carved image of a man, or a woman,)

17 or a likeness of all beasts that be on earth, either of birds flying under heaven, (or a likeness of any beast that is on the earth, or of any bird flying in the sky,)

18 either of creeping beasts that be moved in the earth, either of fishes that dwell under the earth in waters; (or of any creeping beast that moveth on the ground, or of any fish that liveth in the waters under the earth;)

19 lest peradventure, when thine eyes be raised up to heaven, thou see the sun, and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and thou be deceived by error, and worship those things, and honour them, the which things thy Lord God made of nought, into the service of all folks that be under heaven. (lest, when thine eyes be raised up to the heavens, and thou see the sun, and the moon, and all the stars in the sky, that is, the host of heaven, thou be deceived by error, and thou worship those things, and honour them, which things the Lord thy God made out of nothing, for the service of all the peoples who be under heaven.)