Exodus 20:4

The second commandment forbids making idols or images to represent God. He must be worshiped as He is, not reduced to crafted forms.

Cross-references · 32

• Deut 5:8“You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
• Lev 26:1“‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up an engraved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Yahweh your God.
• Deut 4:15–19Be 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,
• Ps 97:7Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!
• Lev 19:4“‘Don’t turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.
• Acts 17:29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
• Rev 16:2The first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and evil sore on the people who had the mark of the beast, and who worshiped his image.
• Deut 27:15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
• Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
• Jer 10:14–16Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
• Rom 1:23and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
• Ps 135:15–18The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
• Isa 42:8“I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.
• Isa 45:16They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
• Jer 10:8–9But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
• Ezek 8:10So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall.
• Deut 4:23–25Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.
• Jer 10:3–5For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.
• Acts 19:26–35You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
• Isa 44:9–20Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
• Rev 14:9–11Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand,
• Rev 9:20The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.
• Isa 46:5–8“To whom will you liken me, and consider my equal, and compare me, that we may be equal?
• Isa 40:18–20To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
• 2 Chr 33:7He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.
• Rev 13:14–15He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
• Exod 32:1When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”
• 1 Kgs 12:28So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
• Isa 42:17“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
• Exod 34:17“You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
• Exod 32:8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
• Exod 32:23For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

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