115:4 Their 1 idols are made of silver and gold –
they are man-made. 2
115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
115:6 ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell,
115:7 hands, but cannot touch,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot even clear their throats. 3
115:8 Those who make them will end up 4 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
41:23 Predict how future events will turn out, 5
so we might know you are gods.
Yes, do something good or bad,
so we might be frightened and in awe. 6
41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;
the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. 7
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.
44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless? 8
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.
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not 9 move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. 10
When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
1 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
2 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
3 tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).
4 tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”
5 tn Heb “Declare the coming things, with respect to the end.”
6 tc The translation assumes the Qere (וְנִרְאֶה [vÿnir’eh], from יָרֵא [yare’], “be afraid”).
7 tn Heb “an object of disgust [is he who] chooses you.”
8 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
9 tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.
10 tn Or “objects of mockery.”