Deuteronomy 4:16

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Lest ye corrupt . . . and make.—The connection between idolatry and corruption is twofold. First, it changes “the glory of the incorruptible God” into an image of His corruptible creatures. Secondly, it always ends in corrupting the idolater. Man was made to have dominion over the works of God’s hands. He cannot worship anything in creation, which he was not intended to rule. He can only fulfil his destiny when he strives after the Divine likeness, rising to that which is above him, instead of stooping to that which is below.

(17,18) Likeness of any beast . . . fowl . . .—There may be an allusion to the animal idolatry of Egypt here.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:16-17. Lest ye corrupt yourselves — Corrupt your minds with mean thoughts of God, your hearts by suffering any creature to alienate your affections from him, or your ways by worshipping him in a corrupt manner, or by falling into idolatry. And make you a graven image — For worship, or for the representation of God; which he forbids under the penalty of his displeasure. The likeness of any beast, &c. — Dr. Chandler observes, that “this is the very picture of Egypt, which had gods of all sorts; dead persons deified, male and female, and numerous images of them; who worshipped as deities bulls, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, birds, the ibis and hawk, serpents, crocodiles, river-horses, together with the sun, moon, and stars of heaven.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-23 The power and love of God to Israel are here made the ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God. We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hero worship exhibited itself in the practice of setting up images of human form as household gods (Penates, compare Genesis 31:19; Genesis 35:2), or as local and civic divinities: a practice forbidden by Deuteronomy 4:16. Nature worship in its baser shapes is seen in the Egyptian idolatry of animals and animal figures, and is condemned in Deuteronomy 4:17-18 : while its less ignoble flight, the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, is forbidden in Deuteronomy 4:19. The great legislator may be regarded as taking in the passage before us a complete and comprehensive survey of the various forms of idolatrous and corrupt worship practiced by the surrounding Oriental nations, and as particularly and successively forbidding them every one.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16-19. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image—The things are here specified of which God prohibited any image or representation to be made for the purposes of worship; and, from the variety of details entered into, an idea may be formed of the extensive prevalence of idolatry in that age. In whatever way idolatry originated, whether from an intention to worship the true God through those things which seemed to afford the strongest evidences of His power, or whether a divine principle was supposed to reside in the things themselves, there was scarcely an element or object of nature but was deified. This was particularly the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whose superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly directed. The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and Isis, under the figure of a male and a female. It was in Egypt that animal-worship most prevailed, for the natives of that country deified among beasts the ox, the heifer, the sheep, and the goat, the dog, the cat, and the ape; among birds, the ibis, the hawk, and the crane; among reptiles, the crocodile, the frog, and the beetle; among fishes, all the fish of the Nile; some of these, as Osiris and Isis, were worshipped over all Egypt, the others only in particular provinces. In addition they embraced the Zabian superstition, the adoration of the Egyptians, in common with that of many other people, extending to the whole starry host. The very circumstantial details here given of the Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry were owing to the past and prospective familiarity of the Israelites with it in all these forms.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Lest ye corrupt your minds with mean and carnal thoughts of God. Or, corrupt your ways or courses, by worshipping God in a corrupt manner, or by falling into idolatry.

A graven image, to wit, for worship, or for the representation of God, as it is explained Deu 4:19, for otherwise it was not simply unlawful to draw the picture or make a figure of a man or a beast.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, &c. and others in the likeness of women, as Juno, Diana, Venus, &c. 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.

Geneva Study Bible

Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. lest ye corrupt yourselves] Acts perniciously.

a graven image] Heb. pesel: any idol carved in stone or wood.

figure] Heb. semel, only here; Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 8:5; 2 Chronicles 33:7; 2 Chronicles 33:15, the Phoen. apparently for a statue, ἀνδριάς (CIS i. i. 41, line i.; 88, lines 2, 5; 91, 1). So here of the human figure as the following words show.

the likeness, etc.] Rather, the build or mould, Heb. tabnîth, of male or female.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Graven image (פֶסֶל), carved work or sculpture, whether of wood, or metal, or stone - the similitude of any figure - the form of any idol (סֶמֶל, form, statue, idol) - the likeness - figure (תַבְנִית, a building, a model, a form, or figure) - of male or female - in apposition to graven image, and illustrative of it. Deuteronomy 4:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As the Israelites had seen no shape of God at Horeb, they were to beware for their souls' sake (for their lives) of acting corruptly, and making to themselves any kind of image of Jehovah their God, namely, as the context shows, to worship God in it. (On pesel, see at Exodus 20:4.) The words which follow, viz., "a form of any kind of sculpture," and "a representation of male or female" (for tabnith, see at Exodus 25:9), are in apposition to "graven image," and serve to explain and emphasize the prohibition.