Deuteronomy 32:16-17

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ¹ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ² 

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 ³  had not known about.

Deuteronomy 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁴  with false gods, ⁵ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁶ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁷ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁸  I will enrage them.

Jude 1:8

1:8 Yet these men, ⁹  as a result of their dreams, ¹⁰  defile the flesh, reject authority, ¹¹  and insult ¹²  the glorious ones. ¹³ 

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹⁴ 

Jude 1:15

1:15 to execute judgment on ¹⁵  all, and to convict every person ¹⁶  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ¹⁷  that they have committed, ¹⁸  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁹ 

Psalms 106:19-20

106:19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,

and worshiped a metal idol.

106:20 They traded their majestic God ²⁰ 

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

Psalms 115:4-8

115:4 Their ²¹  idols are made of silver and gold –

they are man-made. ²² 

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. ²³ 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ²⁴  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 44:9-20

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? ²⁵ 

44:11 Look, all his associates ²⁶  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ²⁷ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ²⁸ 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ²⁹  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ³⁰ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ³¹ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ³² 

he scrapes ³³  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ³⁴ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ³⁵ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ³⁶  or an oak.

He gets ³⁷  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ³⁸  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ³⁹ 

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. ⁴⁰ 

44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –

over that half he cooks ⁴¹  meat;

he roasts a meal and fills himself.

Yes, he warms himself and says,

‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’

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!’

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ⁴² 

44:19 No one thinks to himself,

nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:

‘I burned half of it in the fire –

yes, I baked bread over the coals;

I roasted meat and ate it.

With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?

Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ⁴³ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ⁴⁴ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ⁴⁵ 

Jeremiah 10:14-16

10:14 All these idolaters ⁴⁶  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. ⁴⁷ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ⁴⁸ 

10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. ⁴⁹ 

When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

10:16 The Lord, who is the inheritance ⁵⁰  of Jacob’s descendants, ⁵¹  is not like them.

He is the one who created everything.

And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own. ⁵² 

He is known as the Lord who rules over all.” ⁵³ 

[32:16]  ¹ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ² tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ³ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:21]  ⁴ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[1:8]  ⁹ tn The reference is now to the false teachers.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “dreaming.” The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (enupniazomenoi, “dreaming”) is adverbial to the pronoun οὗτοι (|outoi, “these”), though the particular relationship is not clear. It could mean, “while dreaming,” “by dreaming,” or “because of dreaming.” This translation has adopted the last option as Jude’s meaning, partially for syntactical reasons (the causal participle usually precedes the main verb) and partially for contextual reasons (these false teachers must derive their authority from some source, and the dreams provide the most obvious base). The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι was sometimes used of apocalyptic visions, both of true and false prophets. This seems to be the meaning here.

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Most likely, the authority of the Lord is in view. This verse, then, echoes the indictment of v. 4: “they deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

[1:8]  ¹² tn The construction with the three verbs (“defile, “reject,” and “insult”) involves the particles μέν, δέ, δέ (men, de, de). A more literal (and pedantic) translation would be: “on the one hand, they defile the flesh, on the other hand, they reject authority, and on another hand, they insult the glorious ones.”

[1:8]  ¹³ sn The glorious ones refers to angelic beings rather than mere human beings, just as in 2 Pet 2:10 (on which this passage apparently depends). Whether the angelic beings are good or evil, however, is difficult to tell (hence, the translation is left ambiguous). However, both in 2 Pet 2:11 and here, in Jude 9, the wicked angels seem to be in view (for not even Michael insults them).

[1:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ¹⁶ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ¹⁸ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ¹⁹ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.

[106:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “their glory.” According to an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, the text originally read “his glory” or “my glory.” In Jer 2:11 the Lord states that his people (Israel) exchanged “their glory” (a reference to the Lord) for worthless idols.

[115:4]  ²¹ tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).

[115:4]  ²² tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[115:7]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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.”

[44:10]  ²⁵ tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”

[44:11]  ²⁶ 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.

[44:11]  ²⁷ 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.”

[44:12]  ²⁸ tn The noun מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.

[44:12]  ²⁹ tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.

[44:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

[44:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:14]  ³⁶ tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).

[44:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ³⁸ tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (’oren) to אֶרֶז (’erez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”

[44:15]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ⁴² tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ⁴³ tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.

[44:20]  ⁴⁴ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[10:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[10:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “objects of mockery.”

[10:16]  ⁵⁰ tn The words “The Lord who is” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. For the significance of the words that follow them see the study note that follows.

[10:16]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “The Portion of Jacob.” “Descendants” is implied, and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:16]  ⁵² tn Heb “And Israel is the tribe of his possession.”

[10:16]  ⁵³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies is his name.”