Deuteronomy 16
Deuteronomy 16:22 |
22. Neither shalt thou set thee up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth. | 22. Non eriges tibi statuam: quod odio habet Jehova Deus tuus. |
22. Neither shalt thou set thee up. Hence also it more clearly appears what is the meaning and tendency of the Second Commandment. God elsewhere commands, 1 (as we have seen,) that statues 2 should be erected on the borders of the land, on which the sum of the Law should be inscribed. At first sight this prohibition seems to be contradictory; and indeed it would be so, unless you understand "statue" to be a false image of God, in which men set Him before them in bodily form; and, therefore, it is added, that He hates such statues. But I have preferred translating 3 the relative in the neuter gender, that the sentence might be fuller; i.e., that the erecting of statues is an abomination to the Lord; because in this way His glory is dishonored, when He is transfigured into a body, or when anything corporeal is mixed with His spiritual nature.