Deuteronomy 4:15-24

New International Reader's Version

Don’t Make or Worship Statues of Gods

¹⁵ The Lord spoke to you at Mount Horeb out of the fire. But you didn’t see any shape or form that day. So be very careful. ¹⁶ Make sure you don’t commit a horrible sin. Don’t make for yourselves a statue of a god. Don’t make a god that looks like a man or woman or anything else. ¹⁷ Don’t make one that looks like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the sky. ¹⁸ Don’t make a statue that looks like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish that swims in the water. ¹⁹ When you look up at the heavens, you will see the sun and moon. And you will see huge numbers of stars. Don’t let anyone tempt you to bow down to the sun, moon or stars. Don’t worship things the Lord your God has provided for all the nations on earth. ²⁰ Egypt was like a furnace that melts iron down and makes it pure. But the Lord took you and brought you out of Egypt. He wanted you to be his very own people. And that’s exactly what you are.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of what you did. He promised that he would never let me go across the Jordan River. He promised that I would never enter that good land. It’s the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own. ²² I’ll die here in this land. I won’t go across the Jordan. But you are about to cross over it. You will take that good land as your own. ²³ Be careful. Don’t forget the covenant the Lord your God made with you. Don’t make for yourselves a statue of any god at all. He has told you not to. So don’t do it. ²⁴ The Lord your God is like a fire that burns everything up. He wants you to worship only him.