Deuteronomy 32:17

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹  had not known about.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ² 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 19:18

19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ³ 

Jeremiah 2:11

2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods

(even though they are not really gods at all)?

But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, ⁴ 

for a god that cannot help them at all! ⁵ 

Hosea 8:6

8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!

The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.

Acts 19:26

19:26 And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded ⁶  and turned away ⁷  a large crowd, ⁸  not only in Ephesus ⁹  but in practically all of the province of Asia, ¹⁰  by saying ¹¹  that gods made by hands are not gods at all. ¹² 

Galatians 4:8

Heirs of Promise Are Not to Return to Law

4:8 Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. ¹³ 

¹ tn Heb “your fathers.”

² tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

³ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

⁴ tn Heb “have exchanged their glory [i.e., the God in whom they glory].” This is a case of a figure of speech where the attribute of a person or thing is put for the person or thing. Compare the common phrase in Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel, obviously referring to the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁵ tn Heb “what cannot profit.” The verb is singular and the allusion is likely to Baal. See the translator’s note on 2:8 for the likely pun or wordplay.

⁶ tn Grk “persuading.” The participle πείσας (peisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁷ tn Or “misled.”

⁸ tn BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 3.a has “of pers. ὄχλος a large crowd…Ac 11:24, 26; 19:26.”

⁹ map For location see JP1-D2; JP2-D2; JP3-D2; JP4-D2.

¹⁰ tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 22.

¹¹ tn The participle λέγων (legwn) has been regarded as indicating instrumentality.

¹² tn The words “at all” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

¹³ tn Grk “those that by nature…” with the word “beings” implied. BDAG 1070 s.v. φύσις 2 sees this as referring to pagan worship: “Polytheists worship…beings that are by nature no gods at all Gal 4:8.”