Deuteronomy 4:16

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,)

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 he commanded to me in that time, that I should teach you ceremonies and dooms (that I should teach you the statutes and laws, or judgements), which ye ought to do in the land which ye shall wield.

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;)