Cursed [be] the man that maketh [any] graven or molten
image,
&c.] The blessings and the form of them are not recorded,
because they were not to be had from the law, and through
obedience to it; and therefore there is a profound silence about
them, to put men upon seeking for them elsewhere, and which are
only to be had in Christ, especially spiritual ones; but we may
suppose they were delivered in the same form, and respecting the
same things as the curses, only just the reverse of them; as,
"blessed is the man that maketh not any graven image" The order
of both is given in the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem;
(See Gill on
Deuteronomy 11:29). This curse respects the breach of the
first table of the law, and everything included in it relating to
the nature and being of God, the worship of him, and the honour
of his name; to do anything contrary to which, particularly to
make an image, whether graven or molten, to worship, is
an abomination to the Lord;
and therefore subjects a man to the curse of his law, it being
the work of the hands of the craftsman;
and therefore it must be a most stupid thing to ascribe deity to
it, and worship it as such:
and putteth [it] in [a] secret [place];
though it is not set in a place of public worship, or the house,
so as to be seen by everyone; but in some retired place, in a
secret chamber, and there worshipped, or kept to look at with
pleasure; which would be a temptation, and lead on to idolatry,
and therefore is forbidden, and to be guarded against: now one
that committed idolatry, or anything like it, in the most secret
manner, was liable to this curse; for the omniscient God, the
legislator, knows what is done in the most private manner, and
will resent and revenge every affront and injury to his honour
and glory. And Aben Ezra observes, that all that follow respect
things done in a secret way, and which were not cognizable by the
civil magistrate, and therefore to deter persons from them these
curses were pronounced:
and all the people shall answer and say Amen;
even those on the one mountain as on the other, thereby approving
of, and assenting to, the justice of the sentence pronounced.
