◄ Deuteronomy 4:17 ►
The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air,
Treasury of Scripture

In these verses there is an evident allusion to the idolatrous worship in Egypt. Among the Egyptians, almost everything in nature was the object of their idolatry; among BEASTS were oxen heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, monkeys, and cats; among BIRDS, the ibis, crane, and hawk; among REPTILES, the crocodile, serpents, frogs, flies, and beetles; all the FISH of the Nile, and the Nile itself; besides the sun, moon, planets, stars, fire, light, air, darkness, and night. These are all included in the very circumstantial prohibition in the text, and very forcibly in the general terms of Ex.

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the LORD your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

, the reason of which prohibition becomes self-evident, when the various objects of Egyptian idolatry are considered.

Romans 1:23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts...



Context
Warning Against Idolatry

15Take you therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire: 16Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, 18The likeness of any thing that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19And lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has divided to all nations under the whole heaven. 20But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as you are this day. 21Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance: 22But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but you shall go over, and possess that good land. 23Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. 25When you shall beget children, and children's children, and you shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger: 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the heathen, where the LORD shall lead you. 28And there you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29But if from there you shall seek the LORD your God, you shall find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come on you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God, and shall be obedient to his voice; 31(For the LORD your God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
Parallel Verses
American Standard Version
the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flieth in the heavens,

Douay-Rheims Bible
The similitude of any beasts, that are upon the earth, or of birds, that fly under heaven,

Darby Bible Translation
the pattern of any beast that is on the earth, the pattern of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven,

King James Bible
The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

Young's Literal Translation
a form of any beast which is in the earth -- a form of any winged bird which flieth in the heavens --

Deuteronomy 4:16
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