Deuteronomy 4:15

Deu 4:15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day [that] the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

Ver. 15. Take ye therefore good heed.] These many cautions note our proneness to this evil above others. This appeareth somewhat in children so delighted with pictures, and in that idolomania of these Jews, of the eastern churches, and of the synagogue of Rome.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 4:15. Ye saw no similitude in Horeb — God, who, in some other places and times, did appear in a human form, now in this most solemn appearance, when he came to give eternal laws for the direction of the Israelites in the worship of himself, and in their duty to their fellow- creatures, purposely avoided all such representations, to show that he abhors all worship by images, of what kind soever, because he is the invisible God, and cannot be represented by any visible image.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

IDOLATRY SPECIALLY FORBIDDEN, Deu_4:15-24.

Idolatry in various and in most gross forms prevailed throughout the East among the nations with whom Israel would be brought in contact. Moses in these few passages comprehends the various form of idolatry prevalent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:15 form: No image could capture the transcendent glory and power of the invisible God (Neh 9:20; Isa 63:10-14; Zech 4:6; John 4:24). Any form of the Lord could become an object of worship in lieu of worshiping God himself.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, souls.

Signifying, that destruction is prepared for all them that make any image to represent God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

A PARTICULAR DISSUASIVE AGAINST IDOLATRY. (Deu. 4:14-40)

Take . . . good heed . . . for ye saw no manner of similitude--The extreme proneness of the Israelites to idolatry, from their position in the midst of surrounding nations already abandoned to its seductions, accounts for their attention being repeatedly drawn to the fact that God did not appear on Sinai in any visible form; and an earnest caution, founded on that remarkable circumstance, is given to beware, not only of making representations of false gods, but also any fancied representation of the true God.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. Ye saw no manner of similitude] Howsoever God chose to appear or manifest himself, he took care never to assume any describable form. He would have no image worship, because he is a SPIRIT, and they who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. These outward things tend to draw the mind out of itself, and diffuse it on sensible, if not sensual, objects; and thus spiritual worship is prevented, and the Holy Ghost grieved. Persons acting in this way can never know much of the religion of the heart.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) Ye saw no manner of similitude.—The worship of the invisible Jehovah is here specially insisted on. The difficulty of learning to worship one whom we cannot see is, happily, one which our education does not enable us to realise in its relation to Israel of old. All nations had their visible symbols of deity. Centuries afterwards the world described the followers of Christ as Atheists, because they had no visible God. It is especially recorded in praise of Moses that “he endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb_11:27).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. ye saw no manner of form] Resumes and repeats the reminder in Deu_4:12 in a way that would have been unnecessary but for the digression in 13 f.; and proves that the latter is original. Form, Heb. temûnah.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves,.... As to keep all the laws given them, so particularly to avoid idolatry:

for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; and therefore, as they had nothing that directed and led them, so they had nothing that could be a temptation to them, to make any form or likeness, and worship it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Carefully. Hebrew, "Be therefore particularly attentive, as much as you love your own soul." (Vatable) By keeping my commandments you can alone obtain salvation, ver. 9. (Menochius) --- Similitude of any living creature, such as were the objects of adoration among the pagans. Some represented their gods under the forms of men, women, beasts, birds, or reptiles; while others adored the sun, moon, and stars. (Haydock) --- This last was indeed the most ancient species of idolatry, Job xxi. 26. Baal, Astarte, Moloc, Chamos, &c., were different names by which they denoted the heavenly bodies. But the Egyptians carried their superstition to the greatest excess. There was hardly any sort of animal which did not obtain sovereign worship among them. (Calmet) --- Their great gods, Isis and Osiris, were sometimes depicted like a man and woman; at other times, like beasts, and frequently they appeared with parts of both. The head of Isis was generally adorned or disfigured with the horns of a bull; (Haydock) and that animal, either alive or in a picture, as well as dogs and cats, were adored throughout the country, while some places had their peculiar idols. The lion, the wolf, and the fish called latus, gave their names to the cities Leontopolis, &c., which had a particular veneration for them. Moses takes care to inform the Hebrews that the true God is like none of these things; and that they cannot pretend to represent him under any such forms, without doing him an injury. (Calmet) --- If Catholics endeavour to put the people in mind of the blessed Trinity, by representing a venerable old man, Jesus Christ in his human nature, and a dove, under which forms the Scripture has introduced the three divine persons, they do not pretend that their divine and most spiritual nature can be thus expressed. "If," says the Council of Trent, Session 25, "the historical accounts of Scripture be sometimes set forth in paintings, for the benefit of the illiterate, let the people be informed that the Divinity is not thus represented with a design to insinuate that it may be seen with the eyes of the body." So neither can the figure of a triangle, with the ineffable name of God in Hebrew, &c., explain this adorable mystery. But such things may recall to our remembrance, the innumerable benefits which we have received from the three divine persons, after we have been once informed what we have to believe respecting them. This is the laudable motive which has induced the Church to encourage the keeping of such pictures, as well as those of the saints, with due respect. "Not as if we believed that any divinity or virtue resided in them for which they were to be worshipped, or that we should ask any thing of them, or place our confidence in images, as the Gentiles formerly did, who hoped in their idols, (Psalm cxxxiv.,) but because the honour given to them is referred to the originals, which they represent," &c. (Council of Trent, Session 25.) (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By which caution he insinuates man’s great proneness to the worship of images.

God, who in other places and times did appear in a similitude, in the fashion of a man, now in this most solemn appearance, when he comes to give eternal laws for the regulation and direction of the Israelites in the worship of God, and in their duty to men, he purposely avoids all such representations, to show that he abhors all worship of images, or of himself by images of what kind soever, as it here follows, Deu 4:16-19, because he is the invisible God, and cannot be represented by any visible image. See Isa 40:18; Act 17:29.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 15-20. As the people had seen no form or figure when God spake to them, so they were to beware for their very lives (cf. ver. 9) of acting corruptly by making any kind of image, whether of man or of beast, for the purpose of worshipping God as represented by it; they were also to beware of being so attracted by the splendor of the heavenly bodies as to be forcibly seduced to worship them and offer them religious service. They were not in this respect to imitate the heathen; for God, who had delivered them out of the furnace of Egyptian bondage, had taken them for himself to be his special possession; and therefore they were to take heed not to forget the covenant of Jehovah their God, nor to offend him by making any image or representation of him as the object of worship. Among the heathen, and especially in Egypt, images were the very pillar and support of religion; but in Israel, as God had revealed himself to them without form, it was as a spirit he was to be worshipped, and not under any outward representation.

Vers. 15-20. Warning against heathenish idolatry.

I THE ORIGIN OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY. The result of a "corruption" (Per. 16). Not a stage in the advance upwards from fetishism, etc.; but, as inquiries are tending more and more to show, the consequence:

1. Of a depravation of the idea of God.

2. Of a corruption of the worship of God.

3. Arising in turn from the substitution of the creature for God in the affections (cf. Rom_1:20-26)

II THE FORMS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY.

1. Hero-worship (ver. 16).

2. Animal-worship (vers. 17, 18).

3. Nature-worship (ver. 19).

Greek idolatry furnishes conspicuous instances of the first; Egypt was notorious for the second, so Hinduism; while Parseeism, and the early Vedic worship illustrates the third (cf. Job_31:21)

III THE FRUITS OF HEATHEN IDOLATRY.

1. A degraded intellect.

2. Degraded affections.

3. Degraded morals. (Ro 1)

Therefore Israel must not "corrupt" themselves. J.O.

Vers. 15-24. The Divine jealousy of graven images.

The great temptation of Israel was to idolatry. Images were worshipped by all those nations among whom they came, and they were in constant danger of conforming to the sinful practice. Hence this warning and statement about the Divine jealousy. Let us observe

I THAT JEALOUSY PRESUPPOSES LOVE. Love must be strong as death, else jealousy will not be cruel as the grave; nor will its coals prove coals of fire, having a most vehement flame. (Son_8:6) The God who proves so jealous is he whose essence is love. If God did not love men so much, he would not be so jealous when they turn away from him. He knows that, as a wife cannot be happy separated from her loving husband, no more can the human spirit be, away from him. Israel then and we now have to deal with a God of love.

II GOD IS JEALOUS WHEN MEN GIVE HIM VISIBILITY. Idolatry is trying to help worship through the aid of the senses. The image is not regarded as the god, but his likeness. Man embodies his ideas of God in outward forms. But imagination is not creative; it combines in new relations what has already been given to it. Hence idolatry has never done more than place the creatures, whether beast, or bird, or fish, or reptile, or the heavenly bodies, in new relations to the invisible Divinity. God resents this visibility as degradation. He knows that man becomes degraded by such associations. Hence his deserved wrath against idolatry.

III IF GOD BE NOT OUR KINDLING FLAME, HE WILL IN JEALOUSY BE OUR CONSUMING FIRE. It is at the torch of the Divine that the human soul becomes enkindled. The flaming fires of Pentecost sublimate the soul and fit it for primeval powers. It is this warning, elevating influence that is love"s natural action. But when rebellious man turns the grace of God into lasciviousness; when love is ignored instead of returned, and the soul seeks in the things of sense what God only cad give, then love begins to burn as jealousy with a vehement, consuming flame.

IV IT BECOMES US CONSEQUENTLY TO WORSHIP GOD IN THE SPIRIT. We must keep upon the serene heights of faith, and not fall into the degradation of superstition. We are made for better things than weakly to associate in our minds the invisible and eternal God with the creatures of sense. Let us give faith proper scope, and the worship of God will prove both possible and delightful. But the worship of God through images makes stocks and stones of men. "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them". (Psa_115:8) May our worship raise us and not degrade us! Superstition degrades, but worship of the invisible God in the Spirit elevates and ennobles our souls. R.M.E.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In Horeb - God, who in other places and times did appear in a similitude in the fashion of a man, now in this most solemn appearance, when he comes to give eternal laws for the direction of the Israelites in the worship of God, and in their duty to men, purposely avoids all such representations, to shew that he abhors all worship of images, or of himself by images of what kind soever, because he is the invisible God, and cannot be represented by any visible image.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 Exo 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 Exo 25:9), are in apposition to "graven image," and serve to explain and emphasize the prohibition.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

saw no manner

Cf. (See Scofield "Joh 1:18").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.

So take great heed to yourselves

Possible meanings are 1) "So you need to be very careful how you act" or 2) "Guard your souls carefully."

do not corrupt yourselves

"do not do what is wrong"

creeps on the ground

"crawls on the ground"

translationWords

Yahweh

Horeb

corrupt

image

like

creature

beast

heaven

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

TAKE YE THEREFORE GOOD HEED UNTO YOURSELVES. He warns them lest they mistakenly follow the voice they heard and they commit the corruption of “mutilating the shoots.” He states first the likeness of male or female, [lest they corrupt themselves by making a graven image in the likeness of male or female] of the Being from Whom the voice came. Afterwards he mentioned all that is on the earth of beast and of fowl, of those that creep on the ground, and of the fish that are in the water, and then he reverts to the host of heaven. Now I have already explained the expression, which the Eternal thy G-d hath allotted unto all peoples, for every nation has a star and constellation, and, above them the angels of the Supreme One, like those mentioned in the Book of Daniel, the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and the prince of the kingdom of Greece, Verse 20. — this being the reason why they [the nations] make of them gods for themselves and worship them. Scripture continues, And you the Eternal hath taken, for you are the portion of the Eternal. You are thus not to appoint a prince or helper over yourselves except for Him, for it is He Who brought you forth out of the iron furnace when you were in Egypt in the midst of a furnace of fire and wood [i.e., a furnace of affliction] and He took you out from there in spite of their princes against whom He executed judgments. Had He not brought about their downfall you would not have gone out, for they were [so much] in their ascendancy that you would not be able to leave. Thus He has done all this in order that you be “an inheritance” to Him. and be to His Great Name a treasure from among all peoples.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.