What Does Deuteronomy 4:16 Mean in the King James?
Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The first thing a carved image ruins is the person who makes it.
THE MEANING
This verse names a danger in making: the form you shape can deform you in return. A living reality becomes a fixed object, and the damage reaches the maker. The warning speaks now wherever a representation is mistaken for the life it cannot contain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that an image only misrepresents what it depicts; this verse says the act of making it can also corrupt its maker.
THE ROOT
תַּשְׁחִתוּן
tashchitun
GROWS FROM
שחת
sh-ch-t
To ruin, destroy, or spoil; here, to bring yourselves to ruin.
“corrupt yourselves” in this verse is tashchitun. The Hebrew puts self-ruin before the making of the image: the maker is already at risk in the act. The verse joins the formed object to the damage forming within its maker.
ALSO GROWS
shachat: To destroy, ruin, or corrupt
שָׁחַת
The same root names the damage the verse warns can reach the maker.
mashchit: Destroyer; one who brings ruin
מַשְׁחִית
The root also describes destruction as an active force, underscoring that corruption is more than a flaw in appearance.
פֶּסֶל
pesel
GROWS FROM
פסל
p-s-l
To carve or hew into a form.
“graven image” in this verse is pesel. The noun carries the act of cutting and shaping inside it: this image is made into a fixed form. Beside tashchitun, the verse shows the maker shaping an object while the act itself threatens to reshape the maker.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: To carve or hew
פָּסַל
The verb reveals the hand and choice involved in producing the image.
pesel: A carved image or idol
פֶּסֶל
The noun is the result of that shaping: a fixed form made by human hands.
THE PATTERN
A made image that replaces living reality reshapes the maker into its likeness.
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:They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.THE THREAD
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.Genesis names male and female as living bearers of God’s image; Deuteronomy names male and female among the forms people might carve. The contrast is between living image-bearing people and a fixed object made in their likeness.
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