Deuteronomy 4 and the Second Commandment

The Second commandment's ban on cultic images is reflected throughout the Old Testament, but its most significant exponent is found in Deuteronomy 4. This single chapter features the most comprehensive Old Testament accumulation of allusions to the Second Commandment and offers a quite unique attempt to give the commandment a theological rationale. This book analyzes this accumulation of allusions, arguing that they represent a successive interpretation of the final version of the commandment, relating it to the exilic or early postexilic context of the author of Deuteronomy 4.