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Deuteronomy 4:18

in Deuteronomy 4

or of any creature that crawls on the ground or fish that is in the waters below.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;

KJV

The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

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This verse in Deuteronomy 4

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground,.... As serpents by many; and indeed that creature is introduced into almost all the idolatries of the Heathens, which seems to take its rise from the serpent Satan made use of to deceive our first parents: the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; as the crocodile and hippopotamus, or river horse, by the Egyptians; and Dagon and Derceto, supposed to be figures in the form of a fish, among the Phoenicians.

This site's exposition

So since you saw no form of any kind

on Deuteronomy 4:15-18

The list runs down from "male or female" through beast, bird and crawling creature to fish, retracing the order of Genesis 1. Paul traces the same descent at Romans 1:23, "images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

This site's exposition

fish that is in the waters below

The list ends with the creatures that crawl and the fish, which carries the prohibition from the ground to the depths. John Gill names Dagon and Derceto, fish figures among the Phoenicians, and 1 Samuel 5 shows Dagon among the Philistines.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

"Take heed lest you corrupt yourselves, " that is, "lest you debauch yourselves;" for those that think to make images of God form in their minds such notions of him as must needs be an inlet to all impieties; and it is intimated that it is a spiritual adultery.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

This was particularly the case with the Canaanites and Egyptians, against whose superstitious practices the caution, no doubt, was chiefly directed. The former worshipped Baal and Astarte, the latter Osiris and Isis, under the figure of a male and a female.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • תַּבְנִ֕יתa likeness of

    tavnitH8403 →20 times

  • כָּל־any

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • רֹמֵ֖שׂcreeping [thing]

    romesH7430 →

  • בָּאֲדָמָ֑הon the ground

    baadamahH127 →225 times

  • תַּבְנִ֛יתa likeness of

    tavnitH8403 →20 times

  • כָּל־any

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • דָּגָ֥הfish

    dagahH1710 →

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • בַּמַּ֖יִם[is] in the waters

    bamayimH4325 →581 times

  • מִתַּ֥חַתfrom under

    mitachatH8478 →505 times

  • לָאָֽרֶץ׃to the earth

    laaretzH776 →2504 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

1 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 4 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 4 →