Idolatry Forbidden

Deuteronomy 4

15 v "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since w you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware x lest you act corruptly y by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, z 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 air, 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 beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see a the sun and the moon and the stars, b all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and c brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, d to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. 21 Furthermore, e the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land; f I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of g that good land. 23 h Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and i make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For j the Lord your God is a consuming fire, k a jealous God.

25 "When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, l if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and m by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I n call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord o will scatter you among the peoples, p and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And q there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, r that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 s But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you t in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is u a merciful God. v He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

  1. Cross References
    Joshua 23:11
    Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.
  2. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:12
    Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.
  3. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:25
    When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger.
  4. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:23
    Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.
    Deuteronomy 5:8
    'You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
    Exodus 20:4
    You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
    Acts 17:29
    Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
  5. Cross References
    Romans 1:23
    And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
  6. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 17:3
    And has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden.
    Job 31:26 - 28
    If I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor.
  7. Cross References
    2 Kings 17:16
    And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
    2 Kings 21:3
    For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
    Genesis 2:1
    Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
  8. Cross References
    1 Kings 8:51
    ( for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace).
    Jeremiah 11:4
    That I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God.
  9. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:29
    For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
    Deuteronomy 32:9
    But the Lord 's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
  10. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 1:37
    Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, 'You also shall not go in there.
  11. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 3:27
    Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan.
  12. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 3:25
    Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.
  13. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:9
    Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children -
  14. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 5:8
    You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
    Exodus 20:4
    You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
    Acts 17:29
    Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
  15. Cross References
    Exodus 24:17
    Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was...
    Hebrews 12:29
    For our God is a consuming fire.
    Deuteronomy 9:3
    Know therefore today that he who goes over befo...
    Isaiah 10:16 - 18
    Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasti...
    Isaiah 29:6
    You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with t...
    Isaiah 30:27
    Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, b...
    Isaiah 30:30
    And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to b...
    Zephaniah 1:18
    Neither their silver nor their gold shall be ab...
  16. Cross References
    Isaiah 42:8
    I am the Lord ; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
    Exodus 20:5
    You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.
  17. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:16
    Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female.
  18. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:18
    Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
    2 Kings 17:17
    And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
  19. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 30:18 - 19
    I declare to you today, that you shall surely p...
    Deuteronomy 31:28
    Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes an...
    Deuteronomy 32:1
    Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let ...
    Isaiah 1:2
    Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the...
    Jeremiah 2:12
    Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be...
    Jeremiah 6:19
    Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster u...
    Micah 6:2
    Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord...
  20. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:33
    And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
  21. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:62
    Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
  22. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:36
    The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.
    Deuteronomy 28:64
    And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
    Jeremiah 16:13
    Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.
  23. Cross References
    Psalms 115:4 - 7
    Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
    Psalms 135:15 - 17
    The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
    Isaiah 44:9
    All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.
    Isaiah 46:7
    They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
  24. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 30:2 - 3
    And return to the Lord your God, you and your c...
    Leviticus 26:40 - 42
    But if they confess their iniquity and the iniq...
    2 Chronicles 15:4
    But when in their distress they turned to the L...
    Nehemiah 1:9
    But if you return to me and keep my commandment...
    Isaiah 55:6 - 7
    Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon ...
    Jeremiah 29:13 - 14
    You will seek me and find me, when you seek me ...
  25. Cross References
    Genesis 49:1
    Then Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.
  26. Cross References
    Exodus 34:6
    The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
    2 Chronicles 30:9
    For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.
    Nehemiah 9:31
    Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
    Jonah 4:2
    And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
  27. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:6
    Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.
    Deuteronomy 31:8
    It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
    Joshua 1:5
    No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
    1 Chronicles 28:20
    Then David said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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