Deuteronomy 4:28

4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

Deuteronomy 27:15

27:15 ‘Cursed is the one ¹  who makes a carved or metal image – something abhorrent ²  to the Lord, the work of the craftsman ³  – and sets it up in a secret place.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 27:2

27:2 When you cross the Jordan River ⁵  to the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must erect great stones and cover ⁶  them with plaster.

Deuteronomy 19:18

19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ⁷ 

Psalms 135:15-18

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

they are man-made. ⁸ 

135:16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.

Indeed, they cannot breathe. ⁹ 

135:18 Those who make them will end up ¹⁰  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 2:8

2:8 Their land is full of worthless idols;

they worship ¹¹  the product of their own hands,

what their own fingers have fashioned.

Isaiah 37:19

37:19 They have burned the gods of the nations, ¹²  for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. ¹³ 

Isaiah 44:16-20

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

over that half he cooks ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵ 

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?’ ¹⁶ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ¹⁷ 

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?’ ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 1:16

1:16 In this way ¹⁹  I will pass sentence ²⁰  on the people of Jerusalem and Judah ²¹  because of all their wickedness. For they rejected me and offered sacrifices to other gods, worshiping what they made with their own hands.” ²² 

Jeremiah 10:3

10:3 For the religion ²³  of these people is worthless.

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 10:9

10:9 Hammered-out silver is brought from Tarshish ²⁵ 

and gold is brought from Uphaz ²⁶  to cover those idols. ²⁷ 

They are the handiwork of carpenters and goldsmiths. ²⁸ 

They are clothed in blue and purple clothes. ²⁹ 

They are all made by skillful workers. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 32:30

32:30 This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me ³¹  from their earliest history until now ³²  and because they ³³  have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. ³⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ³⁵ 

Hosea 8:5-6

8:5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol!

My anger burns against them!

They will not survive much longer without being punished, ³⁶ 

even though they are Israelites!

8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!

The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.

[27:15]  ¹ tn Heb “man,” but in a generic sense here.

[27:15]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[27:15]  ³ tn Heb “craftsman’s hands.”

[27:15]  ⁴ tn Or “So be it!” The term is an affirmation expressing agreement with the words of the Levites.

[27:2]  ⁵ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[27:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “plaster” (so KJV, ASV; likewise in v. 4). In the translation “cover” has been used for stylistic reasons.

[19:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[135:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[135:17]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “bow down to” (NIV, NRSV).

[37:19]  ¹² tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”

[37:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “so they destroyed them” (NASB similar).

[44:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[1:16]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew particle (the vav [ו] consecutive), which is often rendered in some English versions as “and” and in others is simply left untranslated, is rendered here epexegetically, reflecting a summary statement.

[1:16]  ²⁰ sn The Hebrew idiom (literally “I will speak my judgments against”) is found three other times in Jeremiah (4:12; 39:5; 52:9), where it is followed by the carrying out of the sentence. Here the carrying out of the sentence precedes in v. 15.

[1:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “on them.” The antecedent goes back to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah (i.e., the people in them) in v. 15.

[1:16]  ²² tn I.e., idols.

[10:3]  ²³ tn Heb “statutes.” According to BDB 350 s.v. חֻקָּה 2.b it refers to the firmly established customs or practices of the pagan nations. Compare the usage in Lev 20:23; 2 Kgs 17:8. Here it is essentially equivalent to דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) in v. 1, which has already been translated “religious practices.”

[10:3]  ²⁴ sn This passage is dripping with sarcasm. It begins by talking about the “statutes” of the pagan peoples as a “vapor” using a singular copula and singular predicate. Then it suppresses the subject, the idol, as though it were too horrible to mention, using only the predications about it. The last two lines read literally: “[it is] a tree which one cuts down from the forest; the work of the hands of a craftsman with his chisel.”

[10:9]  ²⁵ tc Two Qumran scrolls of Jeremiah (4QJer^a and 4QJer^b) reflect a Hebrew text that is very different than the traditional MT from which modern Bibles have been translated. The Hebrew text in these two manuscripts is similar to that from which LXX was translated. This is true both in small details and in major aspects where the LXX differs from MT. Most notably, 4QJer^a, 4QJer^b and LXX present a version of Jeremiah about 13% shorter than the longer version found in MT. One example of this shorter text is Jer 10:3-11 in which MT and 4QJer^a both have all nine verses, while LXX and 4QJer^b both lack vv. 6-8 and 10, which extol the greatness of God. In addition, the latter part of v. 9 is arranged differently in LXX and 4QJer^b. The translation here follows MT which is supported by 4QJer^a.

[10:9]  ²⁶ tn This is a place of unknown location. It is mentioned again in Dan 10:5. Many emend the word to “Ophir” following the Syriac version and the Aramaic Targum. Ophir was famous for its gold (cf. 1 Kgs 9:28; Job 28:16).

[10:9]  ²⁷ tn The words “to cover those idols” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:9]  ²⁸ tn The words “They are” are not in the text. The text reads merely, “the work of the carpenter and of the hands of the goldsmith.” The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Blue and purple their clothing.”

[10:9]  ³⁰ sn There is an ironic pun in this last line. The Hebrew word translated “skillful workers” is the same word that is translated “wise people” in v. 7. The artisans do their work skillfully but they are not “wise.”

[32:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.” For this idiom see BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.c and compare usage in 18:10.

[32:30]  ³² tn Heb “from their youth.”

[32:30]  ³³ tn Heb “the people of Israel.” However, since “people of Israel” has been used in the preceding line for the northern kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of Judah, it might lead to confusion to translate literally. Moreover, the pronoun “they” accomplishes the same purpose.

[32:30]  ³⁴ tn Heb “by the work of their hands.” See the translator’s note on 25:6 and the parallelism in 25:14 for this rendering rather than referring it to the making of idols as in 1:16; 10:3.

[32:30]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[8:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “How long will they be able to be free from punishment?” This rhetorical question affirms that Israel will not survive much longer until God punishes it.