Exodus 20:4

a graven image an image of carved wood (sometimes enclosed in a metal casing, Isaiah 30:22) or stone, such as were common in antiquity, and are so, of course, still among heathen nations. Cf. Deuteronomy 4:16 f.

the likeness of any form, &c. By an inexactness of language, the Heb. identifies the -form" made with the -form" (in heaven, &c.) upon which it is modelled: RV. eases the sentence by inserting -the likeness of."

in heaven above as birds (Deuteronomy 4:17).

heaven above … the earth beneath The same combination (with reference to Jehovah being God in both), Deuteronomy 4:39; Joshua 2:11; 1 Kings 8:23 (both Deuteronomic).

the water under the earth cf. Deuteronomy 4:18. The waters meant are the huge abyss of subterranean waters, on which the Hebrews imagined the flat surface of the earth to rest (Genesis 49:25; Psalms 24:2; Psalms 136:6), and which they supposed to be the hidden source of seas and springs (see further the writer's note on Genesis 1:9-10). Fish, at least in certain places, or of certain kinds, were regarded as sacred, and forbidden to be eaten, in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere; and Xen. (Anab.i. 4. 9) says that the fish in the Chalus, near Aleppo, were looked upon as gods. See Rel. Sem.2 [175] pp. 174 6, 292 f.; EB.ii. 1530 f.

[175] W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, ed. 2, 1894.