What Does Deuteronomy 4:18 Mean in the King James?
The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
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 word for “likeness” is itself a built form: the verse exposes how a human-made image can turn a living creature into a stand-in for the unpictured divine.
THE MEANING
A ground-creature and a fish remain creatures; neither can contain the divine. The verse holds open the difference between the One heard without a visible form and any likeness fashioned from what lives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that giving the divine a visible, familiar form makes that form able to hold or secure the divine presence.
THE ROOT
תַּבְנִית
tabnith
GROWS FROM
ב־נ־ה
build, construct
The word translated “likeness” names a built form or pattern; its seed is the verb “to build.” Here, the warning is about a made form being treated as a stand-in for what cannot be captured in a form.
ALSO GROWS
mivneh: structure, building
מִבְנֶה
This word names a formed structure, making the built quality inside tabnith visible.
binyan: building, construction
בִּנְיָן
This branch keeps “likeness” connected to the act and result of constructing a form.
רֶמֶשׂ
remes
GROWS FROM
ר־מ־שׂ
move, creep
“creepeth” in this verse is remes. The Hebrew word names a moving creature, from a root of movement; the English clause makes the movement sound like a separate action. The verse names a living being among the forms that must not be made into an image of the divine.
ALSO GROWS
ramash: to move, creep
רָמַשׂ
The verb carries the movement that the noun remes names in a creature.
romes: one that moves or creeps
רֹמֵשׂ
This participle keeps the creature defined by its living movement, not by a fixed likeness.
אֲדָמָה
adamah
GROWS FROM
א־ד־ם
be red; the root family names reddish ground and the human
The ground here is adamah, in the same consonant family as adam, the human, and adom, red. The verse places the human and the crawling creature in an earth-linked world of living forms, none of which can stand in for the unpictured divine.
ALSO GROWS
adam: human being
אָדָם
The shared consonants link the human to the ground where the creature moves.
adom: red
אָדֹם
This branch preserves the root’s association with the reddish earth named by adamah.
THE PATTERN
A made likeness cannot contain the unpictured divine; living forms remain creatures, not measures of God.
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:To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.THE THREAD
According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.The Hebrew תַּבְנִית (tabnith, “pattern” or “likeness”) also names the pattern of the tabernacle. The shared word shows that the issue is not form alone: here a pattern is received for a dwelling, while Deuteronomy warns against making a creature’s likeness a stand-in for God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us