Deuteronomy 4:15-18

The Nature of Israel’s God

4:15 Be very careful, ¹  then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. 4:16 I say this ²  so you will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female, 4:17 any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky, 4:18 anything that crawls ³  on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the earth. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 5:8

5:8 You must not make for yourself an image ⁵  of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. ⁶ 

Psalms 115:5-8

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. ⁷ 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ⁸  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Psalms 135:15-18

135:15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold,

they are man-made. ⁹ 

135:16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.

Indeed, they cannot breathe. ¹⁰ 

135:18 Those who make them will end up ¹¹  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 40:18

40:18 To whom can you compare God?

To what image can you liken him?

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹² 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ¹³ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ¹⁴ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ¹⁵ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ¹⁶ 

he scrapes ¹⁷  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ¹⁸ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 8:10

8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ²⁰  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²¹  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ²² 

Acts 17:29

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ²³  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ²⁴  made by human ²⁵  skill ²⁶  and imagination. ²⁷ 

Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ²⁸  Amphipolis ²⁹  and Apollonia, ³⁰  they came to Thessalonica, ³¹  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ³² 

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ³³  brothers and sisters ³⁴  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ³⁵  from God our Father! ³⁶ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 4:3

4:3 At the same time pray ³⁸  for us too, that ³⁹  God may open a door for the message ⁴⁰  so that we may proclaim ⁴¹  the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴² 

Revelation 9:20

9:20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made ⁴³  of gold, silver, ⁴⁴  bronze, stone, and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.

[4:15]  ¹ tn Heb “give great care to your souls.”

[4:16]  ² tn The words “I say this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 16 is subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:18]  ³ tn Heb “creeping thing.”

[4:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “under the earth.”

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “an image, any likeness.”

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “under the earth” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); NCV “below the land.”

[115:7]  ⁷ 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).

[115:8]  ⁸ 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.”

[135:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[135:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “indeed, there is not breath in their mouth.” For the collocation אַף אֵין (’af ’en, “indeed, there is not”) see Isa 41:26. Another option is to take אַף as “nose” (see Ps 115:6), in which case one might translate, “a nose, [but] they have no breath in their mouths.”

[135:18]  ¹¹ 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.”

[40:26]  ¹² tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ¹³ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[44:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

[44:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[8:10]  ²⁰ tn Or “pattern.”

[8:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.

[8:10]  ²² sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).

[17:29]  ²³ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ²⁴ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ²⁵ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ²⁶ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ²⁷ tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:1]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ²⁹ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ³⁰ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ³¹ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ³² sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[1:2]  ³³ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ³⁵ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ³⁶ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:1]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[4:3]  ³⁸ tn Though προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) is an adverbial participle related to the previous imperative, προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite), it is here translated as an independent clause due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[4:3]  ³⁹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been rendered as substantival here, indicating the content of the prayer rather than the purpose for it. These two ideas are very similar and difficult to differentiate in this passage, but the conjunction ἵνα following a verb of praying is generally regarded as giving the content of the prayer.

[4:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “that God may open for us a door of the word to speak the mystery of Christ.” The construction in Greek is somewhat awkward in this clause. The translation attempts to simplify this structure somewhat and yet communicate exactly what Paul is asking for.

[4:3]  ⁴¹ tn Or “so that we may speak.”

[4:3]  ⁴² tn Or “in prison.”

[9:20]  ⁴³ tn The word “made” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[9:20]  ⁴⁴ tn The Greek conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following materials in this list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.