Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, х pecel (H6459), a carved image, either of wood or stone; Septuagint, eidoolon].
Or any likeness, х tªmuwnaah (H8544), appearance, form; Septuagint, homoiooma] - namely, of Yahweh (Numbers 12:8; Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 4:15). Both of these words, taken in connection with Deuteronomy 4:15, are considered by eminent critics as prohibiting the worship of Yahweh under any visible and material representation; but undoubtedly they include images or likenesses of pagan deities also (Judges 17:3; 2 Kings 21:7).
That is in heaven above - namely, angels, the sun, moon, and stars, images of which were made, as seen on Assyrian sculptures, in the form of discs, crescents, rayed stars, etc., used in Zabaism or astrolatry, the oldest form of idolatry in the world; bright light in the image of Baal or Bel, and pale light in that of Astarte;-birds (Deuteronomy 4:17-18), the hawk, eagle.
Or that is in the earth beneath - deified heroes, statues of men and women, as male and female divinities, representing the different stages of life-the old man and the youth, the matron and the virgin; and the myths relating to the influences of such gods (Mover's 'Die Phonizier,' 1:, p. 148, quoted 'Bib. Cyc.,' vol. 2:, 3); and images of beasts-the calf Mnevis of Heliopolis, the bull Apis of Memphis, etc.; and reptiles, frogs, scarabaeus, the Egyptian beetle.
Or that is in the water under the earth - crocodiles, Dagon.
Verse 5. Thou shalt not bow - i:e., 'make in order to bow.' Under the auspices of Moses himself, figures of cherubim, brazen serpents, oxen, and many other things were made and never condemned. The mere making of them was no sin, it was the making with the intent to give idolatrous worship.
For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, х 'Eel (H410) qanaa' (H7067)] (Exodus 34:14) - a God who cannot brook a rival, cannot receive a partial or divided homage [Septuagint, Theos xeelootees], zealous for his own honour (Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 48:11).
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation, х baaniym (H1121) `al (H5921) shileeshiym (H8029)] - descendants of the third generation (Genesis 50:23); х bªneey (H1121) baaniym (H1121)] grandchildren are not mentioned here (Gesenius), as the purpose is to show the punishment of the fathers' sins will extend to their remote posterity. This denunciation of a severe penalty does not refer to such natural evils as leprosy, which Michaelis specifies, phthisis, insanity, which result from the inheritance of a vitiated bodily constitution, or poverty and infamy, which are often entailed upon their offspring by wicked parents. It has a special reference, as is clearly indicated by the words;
of them that hate me - i:e., of idolaters.
The infliction of the severe penalty denounced was, it must be particularly noticed, reserved by God to Himself, not delegated to a human magistrate; because under the Jewish, as under all wise and equitable governments, it was a settled principle that 'the fathers should not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers; every man should be put to death for his own sin' (Deuteronomy 24:16). 'Now God's appropriating to Himself the execution of this law, would abundantly justify the equity of it, even supposing it had been given by Him as a part of universal religion: for why was the magistrate forbidden to imitate God's method of punishing, but because no power less than omniscient could in all cases keep clear of injustice in such an inquisition? Nor was this sanction chargeable with cruelty more than with injustice. It is, indeed, evident that to extend the temporal punishment denounced against idolatry by the Jewish law to the family of the idolater might be the tenderest mercy, as the most probable method of checking the contagion of that infectious crime among a people who were habituated to consider temporal punishment as the sure criterion of divine displeasure, and on whom its infliction was therefore the only effectual mode of awakening to serious reflection ordinary providential government which Yahweh judged it necessary to exercise over the Jewish nation, since national rewards and punishments necessarily extended beyond the limits of a single generation, in order to produce any permanent and general effect.
And, finally, it was strictly analogous to the general system of the divine government over the whole human race; since in what is termed the common course of events we perpetually find families and nations, for a long series of years, involved in the mischiefs arising from their parents' follies and crimes, or enjoying the blessings derived from their wisdom, virtue, and fortitude. The Jewish scheme proceeded on exactly the same principles, with this only difference, that the supreme Yahweh, the immediate sovereign as well as the tutelary God of the Hebrew nation, undertook to dispense this as well as every other species of reward and punishment, by an immediate and extraordinary providence, in which justice should be tempered with abundant mercy, confining the providential and temporal punishment for the parent's crimes (as in the captivity) to the third and fourth generation; while it encouraged adherence to virtue and to piety, by the assurance of a reward, similar, indeed, in kind, but infinitely superior in degree, and which, under the common course of events, could not be hoped for; promising to extend the blessings obtained by parental faith and obedience (as in the case of Abraham) to the thousandth generation of those who love God,' (Graves 'On the Pentateuch,' part 3:, sec. 3: see also Warburton's 'Divine Legation,' b. 5:, sec. 5; Michaelis' 'Commentary on the Laws of Moses,' b. 5:, art. 229; Magee 'On the Atonement,' note 42; Calmet's 'Fragments,' by Taylor, cccxxxix. and cccxl.)
It may be added, that the threats and curse denounced against idolatry, though annexed only to this commandment, are apparently designed for breaches of the first as well as of the second precept of the law. Although they were inflicted by God in the exercise of His extraordinary providence toward the Hebrew nation, the uniform course of history and experience attests the philosophical truth and soundness of this corollary to the second commandment, that the iniquity of the fathers in bowing down to and serving graven images is visited upon the children of the third and fourth generation of those that hate the Lord. It is exemplified in the degradation of the pagan. Every people who adopt a false religion begin to deteriorate in character and condition, and in proportion as they become blind worshippers of stocks and stones, they gravitate to the lowest point in the social scale, whereas a steadfast adherence to true religion invariably leads to intellectual progress and moral dignity.