Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 4:16
Lest ye corrupt [yourselves], and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
16. lest ye corrupt yourselves ] Act perniciously.
a graven image ] Heb. pesel: any idol carved in stone or wood.
figure ] Heb. semel, only here; Eze 8:3; Eze 8:5 ; 2Ch 33:7; 2Ch 33:15, the Phoen. apparently for a statue, ( 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. tabnth, of male or female.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. The likeness of male or female] Such as Baal-peor and the Roman Priapus, Ashtaroth or Astarte, and the Greek and Roman Venus; after whom most nations of the world literally went a whoring.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16-19. Lest ye corrupt yourselves,and make you a graven imageThe things are here specified ofwhich God prohibited any image or representation to be made for thepurposes of worship; and, from the variety of details entered into,an idea may be formed of the extensive prevalence of idolatry in thatage. In whatever way idolatry originated, whether from an intentionto worship the true God through those things which seemed to affordthe strongest evidences of His power, or whether a divine principlewas supposed to reside in the things themselves, there was scarcelyan element or object of nature but was deified. This was particularlythe case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whosesuperstitious 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 thatanimal-worship most prevailed, for the natives of that countrydeified among beasts the ox, the heifer, the sheep, and the goat, thedog, the cat, and the ape; among birds, the ibis, the hawk, and thecrane; among reptiles, the crocodile, the frog, and the beetle; amongfishes, all the fish of the Nile; some of these, as Osiris and Isis,were worshipped over all Egypt, the others only in particularprovinces. In addition they embraced the Zabian superstition, theadoration of the Egyptians, in common with that of many other people,extending to the whole starry host. The very circumstantial detailshere given of the Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry were owing to thepast and prospective familiarity of the Israelites with it in allthese forms.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(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 Gods 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Ver. 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves God having a just title to their highest love, and religious veneration, their suffering any object whatever to come in competition with him, was a corrupting of themselves; a depravation and perfidious alienation of their affections from that God, whose they were, and whom they were to serve. The Jews have so well understood the force of this exhortation, that, to this day, they found the third article of their Creed upon the immateriality of God. Indeed, we must acknowledge, that the most ancient legislators, and the wisest of the philosophers, agreed with Moses in condemning all representations of the Deity by any image or sensible object whatever. Among other excellent institutions of religion, Numa taught the Romans to abstain from all use of images in the worship of the gods; a doctrine, which he is said to have derived from Pythagoras, whom Clemens Alexandrinus alleges to have been beholden for it to Moses’s writings. Porphyry, in the life of Pythagoras, tells us, that he had travelled into Judea, as well as into Egypt, in order to improve himself in wisdom and knowledge. But let us hear Plutarch on the subject: “Pythagoras,” says he, “supposed that the Supreme Being was not an object of sense, or capable of any suffering or infirmity; but was incorruptible, invisible, and to be comprehended only by the mind. Numa forbad the Romans to represent God in the form of man or beast; nor was there any picture or statue of a deity admitted among them formerly: for, during the space of the first hundred and seventy years, they built temples, and erected chapels, but made no images, thinking that it was a great impiety to represent the most excellent Beings by things so base and unworthy; and that it was by the understanding only, that men could form any conception of the Deity.” Life of Numa, p. 166. Similar hereto, and very strong upon the subject, is the following passage from Sophocles: “There is one God; there is in truth but one; who formed the heaven and the earth, the sea and air; but many of us mortals, wandering in the paths of error, have devised, for our own solace, various forms and divinities, made of stone or brass, of gold or ivory; and when we offer sacrifices to these, and celebrate public festivals in their honour, we would be thought religious.” Their refined apprehension of the Deity made the ancient Persians reject, not only images, statues, and pictures, but also temples, altars, and sacrifices, conceiving them all to be unsuitable to the spiritual nature of the Supreme Being. See Herodot. lib. 2: cap. 131. The Phenicians too, in the earliest ages, were without images, as appears from the description of the temple which they had built to Hercules at Gades.
Nulla effigies, simulachraque nota deorum, Majestate locum et sacro implevere timore. SIL. ITAL. lib. 3:
No representation or well known images of the gods filled the temple with majesty and sacred fear.
Tacitus tells us the same of the Germans, de Morib. German. c. ix. The learned reader will find a variety of passages to the same purpose in Grotius and Le Clerc, to whom we are indebted for the above collection; and the latter of whom observes, that all these, in his opinion, are the remains of that religion which Noah taught his children, and which was propagated by them over the earth. So that Moses herein seems not so much to have founded a new institution, as to have revived the old, which had been corrupted: an opinion, the reader will recollect, which we have endeavoured to support throughout this comment. It should, however, be observed, that though these sound notions of religion were early found among some of the wisest, a general corruption soon ensued, and the most debasing ideas of the Deity generally prevailed.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 4:16 Lest ye corrupt [yourselves], and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Ver. 16. The likeness of male or female. ] As the blind Ethnics did, concluding their petitions with that general, Dii, Deaeque omnes. a
a Servius.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
graven image. Hebrew. pesl = a sculpture (Exo 20:4).
figure. Hebrew semel = only here, 2Ch 33:7, 2Ch 33:15, and Eze 8:3, Eze 8:5.
likeness = form. Hebrew. tablinith = model.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
corrupt: Deu 4:8, Deu 4:9, Exo 20:4, Exo 20:5, Exo 32:7, Psa 106:19, Psa 106:20, Rom 1:22-24
the likeness: Such as Baal-peor, the Roman Priapus; Ashtaroth or Astarte, the Greek and Roman Venus, and many others. Deu 4:23, Isa 40:18, Joh 4:24, Act 17:29, Act 20:4, Act 20:5, 1Ti 1:17
Reciprocal: Lev 26:1 – Ye shall Deu 4:25 – corrupt Deu 9:12 – corrupted Deu 27:15 – maketh Deu 32:5 – They have corrupted themselves Psa 78:58 – with Isa 44:13 – he marketh Zep 3:7 – corrupted Act 7:43 – figures
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 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.