Deuteronomy 4:16

16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness 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 The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

15 Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horev out of the midst of the fire.

16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 the likeness of any animal that is on the eretz, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the eretz;