Jeremiah 51:17

51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham.

There is no breath in any of those idols.

Psalms 97:7

97:7 All who worship idols are ashamed,

those who boast about worthless idols.

All the gods bow down before him. ¹ 

Isaiah 42:17

42:17 Those who trust in idols

will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ² 

those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Isaiah 44:11

44:11 Look, all his associates ³  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ⁴ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

Isaiah 45:16

45:16 They will all be ashamed and embarrassed;

those who fashion idols will all be humiliated. ⁵ 

¹ tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verbal form in the first line is an imperfect (“are ashamed”) and that the ambiguous form in the third line is a perfect (“bow down”) because the psalmist appears to be describing the effect of the Lord’s mighty theophany on those who witness it (see vv. 5, 8). Another option is to take the prefixed form in the first line as a jussive (“let all who worship idols be ashamed”) and the ambiguous form in the third line as an imperative (“All you gods, bow down before him!”; cf. NIV).

² tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”

³ tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.

⁴ sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”

⁵ tn “together they will walk in humiliation, the makers of images.”