Passage

Deuteronomy 4.15-18

Book: Deuteronomy · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"13. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14. And Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it."

"15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flieth in the heavens, 18. the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;"

"19. and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Jehovah thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20. But Jehovah hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as at this day." (Deuteronomy 4:13-20, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"13. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. 14. Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it."

"15. Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, 16. lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18. the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;"

"19. and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20. But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today." (Deuteronomy 4:13-20, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"13. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it."

"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: 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18. The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:"

"19. And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. ^{divided: or, imparted} 20. But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day." (Deuteronomy 4:13-20, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"13. and He declareth to you His covenant, which He hath commanded you to do, the Ten Matters, and He writeth them upon two tables of stone. 14. 'And me hath Jehovah commanded at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for your doing them in the land whither ye are passing over to possess it;"

"15. and ye have been very watchful of your souls, for ye have not seen any similitude in the day of Jehovah's speaking unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16. lest ye do corruptly, and have made to you a graven image, a similitude of any figure, a form of male or female, 17. a form of any beast which [is] in the earth, a form of any winged bird which flieth in the heavens, 18. a form of any creeping thing on the ground, a form of any fish which [is] in the waters under the earth;"

"19. 'And lest thou lift up thine eyes towards the heavens, and hast seen the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and thou hast been forced, and hast bowed thyself to them, and served them, which Jehovah thy God hath apportioned to all the peoples under the whole heavens. 20. 'And you hath Jehovah taken, and He is bringing you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him for a people, an inheritance, as [at] this day." (Deuteronomy 4:13-20, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

TBD
TBD
TBD
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Quoted in

G3667 - homoioma

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.