Deuteronomy 4:16

16 lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the form of any figure, the pattern of male or female,

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 Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that ye might do them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it.

15 And take great heed to your souls (for ye saw no form on the day that Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire),

16 lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the form of any figure, the pattern of male or female,

17 the pattern of any beast that is on the earth, the pattern of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven,

18 the pattern of anything that creepeth on the ground, the pattern of any fish that is in the waters under the earth;