Exodus 20:4
20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.
Deuteronomy 4:14-18
4:14 Moreover, at that same time the
Lord commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess.
The Nature of Israel’s God
4:15 Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire.
4:16 I say this so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,
4:17 any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky,
4:18 anything that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth.
Deuteronomy 4:2
4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the
Lord your God that I am delivering to
you.
Deuteronomy 10:1
The Opportunity to Begin Again
10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark.
Deuteronomy 17:16
17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so,
for the
Lord has said you must never again return that way.
Deuteronomy 17:2
17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages
that the
Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God
and breaks his covenant
Deuteronomy 11:15
11:15 I will provide pasture
for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”
Hosea 8:4-7
The Political and Cultic Sin of Israel
8:4 They enthroned kings without my consent!
They appointed princes without my approval!
They made idols out of their silver and gold,
but they will be destroyed!
8:5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol!
My anger burns against them!
They will not survive much longer without being punished,
even though they are Israelites!
8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!
The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
The Fertility Cultists Will Become Infertile
8:7 They sow the wind,
and so they will reap the whirlwind!
The stalk does not have any standing grain;
it will not produce any flour.
Even if it were to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it all up.
Hosea 10:5-6
The Calf Idol and Idolaters of Samaria Will Be Exiled
10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria will lament over the calf idol of Beth Aven.
Its people will mourn over it;
its idolatrous priests will wail over it,
because its splendor will be taken from them into exile.
10:6 Even the calf idol will be carried to Assyria,
as tribute for the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced;
Israel will be put to shame because of its wooden idol.