A CARVED IMAGE — from pasal, to hew or chisel; the KJV's 'graven image' is exact. ⚠ Whether Exodus 20:3 forbids images OF JEHOVAH or only images of other gods is the question the numbering traditions divide over, and the Hebrew syntax permits both: read with the previous clause it is one commandment about foreign gods, read alone it is a standalone prohibition of images. ⚠ Deuteronomy 4:16, 23, 25 (already on these pages) is where the noun does its heaviest work, paired every time with temunah, ‘form’ — the NIV alone on the English shelf translates it outright as ‘an idol’, collapsing the manufactured object into its eventual abuse; KJV, ASV, Geneva and the NWT all keep the more neutral ‘graven/carved image’, matching this translation. ⭐ Paired with massekhah it names the object of Deuteronomy 27’s first curse, a carved and cast image (27:15, now on these pages): pesel u-massekhah stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible, that one, Nahum 1:14, and three in the story of Micah’s shrine (Judges 17:3, 17:4, 18:14; none yet on these pages), where a singular verb governs the pair — one image, carved and overlaid, which is why this translation prints one. → first discussed at Exod 20:3