Exodus 20:4

Summary

The verse prohibits making a pesel ("image", H6459) or any temunah ("form", H8544) for oneself, and defines the scope of this prohibition by covering three cosmic zones: the heavens above, the earth below, and the waters beneath the earth. The syntax builds a comprehensive spatial totality rather than naming specific deities or objects.

Key words

• ta.'aseh ("you must make", H6213H) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect expresses an ongoing or future-directed prohibition rather than a single completed act.
• lekha ("for yourself", H9031 with H9005) — preposition plus second-person suffix, marking the action as done for the benefit or use of the addressee, reinforcing the personal/individual scope of the command.
• pesel ("an image", H6459) — masculine singular noun, the direct object naming a carved or fashioned object.
• temunah ("form", H8544) — feminine singular noun joined by ve-khol ("and any", H9002+H3605) in construct-like apposition, broadening the prohibition beyond the pesel to any "form" whatsoever.
• 'asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle repeated three times, each time introducing a locative clause (bashamayim... mi-ma'al, "in the heavens... from above"; ba-'aretz... mi-tachat, "in the earth... from beneath"; ba-mayim... mi-tachat la-'aretz, "in the waters... from beneath the earth"), structuring the verse's threefold cosmic division.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the negation lo' ("not", H3808) attached to the imperfect verb ta.'aseh, producing a durative prohibition addressed to a singular "you." The object is doubled: first pesel ("image"), then ve-khol-temunah ("and any form"), joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002). This pairing moves from a specific object (a carved image) to an unrestricted category ("any form"), which the following relative clauses then delimit spatially rather than by content.

Each of the three relative clauses uses the pattern 'asher + locative preposition (ba- "in the") + noun + a second locative expression (mi-ma'al "from above", mi-tachat "from beneath," twice). This repeated structure creates a merism — heavens above, earth below, waters beneath the earth — that expresses totality of physical space through three named domains rather than through an abstract term for "everything." The construct-state elements (khol-temunah, tachat) link the noun temunah and the locative markers grammatically to what follows, tying the general prohibition to its geographic delimitation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew nouns as εἴδωλον ("idol") for pesel and ὁμοίωμα ("likeness") for temunah, using οὐδὲ ("nor") where the Hebrew has ve-khol ("and any"), slightly shifting the additive relation between the two objects into a negated second clause. The Vulgate uses sculptile ("a carved thing") for pesel and similitudinem ("likeness") for temunah, matching the LXX's two-term structure. Both LXX and Vulgate retain the threefold spatial division (heaven/earth/waters) found in the Hebrew, though the Vulgate's desuper, deorsum, sub terra correspond to the Hebrew's repeated mi-ma'al/mi-tachat constructions with slightly different prepositional phrasing.