The immediately preceding warnings and prohibitions (see Deuteronomy 4:15–19) are summed up here, that to make an image of God in any form would be the same as forgetting the covenant of the Lord, which was to forget the relationship by which Israel was kept alive.
23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.