Deuteronomy 4:16

16 so that you [do] not {ruin yourselves} and make for yourselves a divine image [in] a form of any image, a replica 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 Yahweh charged me at that time to teach you rules and regulations {for your observation of them} in the land that you [are] {about to cross into} to take possession of it.
15 "So {you must be very careful for yourselves}, because you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
16 so that you [do] not {ruin yourselves} and make for yourselves a divine image [in] a form of any image, a replica of male or female,
17 a replica of any animal that [is] upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that [is] in the water {below} the earth.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "corrupt yourselves"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.