Hosea 11:6

11:6 A sword will flash in their cities,

it will destroy the bars of their city gates,

and will devour them in their fortresses.

Psalms 135:17-18

135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.

Indeed, they cannot breathe. ¹ 

135:18 Those who make them will end up ²  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 44:17-20

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. ³ 

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?’ ⁴ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ⁵ 

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?’ ⁶ 

Isaiah 45:20

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.

Isaiah 46:8

46:8 Remember this, so you can be brave! ⁷ 

Think about it, you rebels! ⁸ 

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ⁹  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ¹⁰ 

Romans 1:22-25

1:22 Although they claimed ¹¹  to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ¹²  or birds or four-footed animals ¹³  or reptiles.

1:24 Therefore God gave them over ¹⁴  in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor ¹⁵  their bodies among themselves. ¹⁶  1:25 They ¹⁷  exchanged the truth of God for a lie ¹⁸  and worshiped and served the creation ¹⁹  rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

[135:17]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[44:18]  ³ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[46:8]  ⁷ tn The meaning of the verb אָשַׁשׁ (’ashash, which appears here in the Hitpolel stem) is uncertain. BDB 84 s.v. אשׁשׁ relates it to a root meaning “found, establish” in Arabic; HALOT 100 s.v. II אשׁשׁ gives the meaning “pluck up courage.” The imperative with vav (ו) may indicate purpose following the preceding imperative.

[46:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “return [it], rebels, to heart”; NRSV “recall it to mind, you transgressors.”

[10:8]  ⁹ tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”

[10:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”

[1:22]  ¹¹ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:23]  ¹² tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).

[1:23]  ¹³ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.

[1:24]  ¹⁴ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 81:12.

[1:24]  ¹⁵ tn The genitive articular infinitive τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι (tou atimazesqai, “to dishonor”) has been taken as (1) an infinitive of purpose; (2) an infinitive of result; or (3) an epexegetical (i.e., explanatory) infinitive, expanding the previous clause.

[1:24]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “among them.”

[1:25]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:25]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the lie.”

[1:25]  ¹⁹ tn Or “creature, created things.”