44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless? 1
40:19 A craftsman casts 2 an idol;
a metalsmith overlays it with gold
and forges silver chains for it.
42:17 Those who trust in idols
will turn back and be utterly humiliated, 3
those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”
40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; 4
he then seeks a skilled craftsman
to make 5 an idol that will not fall over.
44:9 All who form idols are nothing;
the things in which they delight are worthless.
Their witnesses cannot see;
they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; 6
he takes some of it and warms himself.
Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Then he makes a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it. 7
44:17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it, saying,
‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’
45:20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations!
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
48:5 I announced them to you beforehand;
before they happened, I predicted them for you,
so you could never say,
‘My image did these things,
my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’
1 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
2 tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”
3 tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”
4 tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.
5 tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”
5 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
6 tn Or perhaps, “them.”