Deuteronomy 5:8

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:8 prohibits making a pesel ("image of", H6459) linked to any temunah ("form", H8544) — that is, a carved representation of anything found in the sky, on the earth, or in the waters under the earth. The verse structures this totality through three parallel relative clauses, each beginning with asher ("which", H0834A) and using a locative preposition plus "above/beneath."

Key words

• ta'aseh ("you must make", H6213H) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular, expressing an ongoing prohibition ("you shall not make," not a single past event).
• fesel ("an image of", H6459) — masculine singular construct noun, grammatically bound to the following phrase, meaning it cannot stand alone but requires "of X" to complete its sense.
• temunah ("form", H8544) — feminine singular noun, here governed by kol ("any", H3605) also in construct, producing the chain pesel kol-temunah, "an image of any form."
• asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle repeated three times (lines 8, 14, 20), each time introducing a clause that specifies a location (heavens, earth, waters), producing a triadic parallel structure.
• mi-ma'al / mi-tachat ("from above" / "from beneath", H4605/H8478G) — the preposition min ("from", H9006) combined with a positional noun, giving spatial orientation ("above" and "beneath") rather than a simple adjective.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the negated imperfect lo ta'aseh ("you shall not make"), followed by lekha ("for yourself", H9031) marking the beneficiary/reflexive sense of the action. The object of the prohibition is a construct chain: pesel ("image of") bound to kol-temunah ("any form"), meaning the two nouns function together as one complex object — literally "an image of any form" rather than two separate items ("an image, or any likeness").

This object is then qualified by three relative clauses, each introduced by asher and structured identically: preposition + article + noun (location), followed by min + positional noun (above/beneath). The three locations are ba-shamayim mi-ma'al ("in the heavens above"), ba-'aretz mi-tachat ("on the earth beneath"), and ba-mayim mi-tachat la-'aretz ("in the waters beneath the earth"). This triadic asher structure creates a merism covering the three cosmological zones — sky, land, and subterranean waters — through repeated syntax rather than a single summarizing term.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the single Hebrew construct chain pesel kol-temunah as two separate objects joined by oude: εἴδωλον ("idol") oude ... ὁμοίωμα ("likeness"), each governed by its own hosa ("as many things as") clauses, rather than preserving the Hebrew's single bound phrase "image of any form." The Vulgate similarly splits into sculptile and similitudinem omnium ("likeness of all things"), using omnium where the Hebrew kol ("any", H3605) modifies temunah within the construct chain rather than standing as an independent quantifier. The BSB compresses the construct phrase into "an idol in the form of anything," merging both Hebrew nouns into one English expression.