Isaiah 40:19

40:19 A craftsman casts ¹  an idol;

a metalsmith overlays it with gold

and forges silver chains for it.

Isaiah 44:12-15

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ² 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ³  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ⁴ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ⁵ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ⁶ 

he scrapes ⁷  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ⁸ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ⁹ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ¹⁰  or an oak.

He gets ¹¹  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ¹²  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ¹³ 

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. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 46:6-7

46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse

and weigh out silver on the scale ¹⁵ 

hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.

They then bow down and worship it.

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 ¹⁶  move from its place.

Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;

it does not deliver him from his distress.

Jeremiah 10:3-5

10:3 For the religion ¹⁷  of these people is worthless.

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ¹⁸ 

10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.

He uses hammer and nails to fasten it ¹⁹  together

so that it will not fall over.

10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot talk.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them

because they cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.” ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 10:9

10:9 Hammered-out silver is brought from Tarshish ²¹ 

and gold is brought from Uphaz ²²  to cover those idols. ²³ 

They are the handiwork of carpenters and goldsmiths. ²⁴ 

They are clothed in blue and purple clothes. ²⁵ 

They are all made by skillful workers. ²⁶ 

Daniel 3:1-7

Daniel’s Friends Are Tested

3:1 ²⁷ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ²⁸  statue made. ²⁹  It was ninety feet ³⁰  tall and nine feet ³¹  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, ³²  and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he ³³  had erected. 3:3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial authorities assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected. They were standing in front of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had erected. ³⁴ 

3:4 Then the herald ³⁵  made a loud ³⁶  proclamation: “To you, O peoples, nations, and language groups, the following command is given: ³⁷  3:5 When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, ³⁸  trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must ³⁹  bow down and pay homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has erected. 3:6 Whoever does not bow down and pay homage will immediately ⁴⁰  be thrown into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire!” 3:7 Therefore when they all ⁴¹  heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, ⁴²  and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and language groups began bowing down and paying homage to the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had erected.

[40:19]  ¹ tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”

[44:12]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

[44:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:14]  ¹⁰ tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).

[44:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[46:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.

[46:7]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.

[10:3]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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.”

[10:4]  ¹⁹ tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.

[10:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[10:9]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Blue and purple their clothing.”

[10:9]  ²⁶ 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.”

[3:1]  ²⁷ sn The LXX introduces this chapter with the following chronological note: “in the eighteenth year of.” Such a date would place these events at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 25:8). However, there seems to be no real basis for associating the events of Daniel 3 with this date.

[3:1]  ²⁸ sn There is no need to think of Nebuchadnezzar’s image as being solid gold. No doubt the sense is that it was overlaid with gold (cf. Isa 40:19; Jer 10:3-4), with the result that it presented a dazzling self-compliment to the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements.

[3:1]  ²⁹ sn According to a number of patristic authors, the image represented a deification of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is not clear from the biblical text, however.

[3:1]  ³⁰ tn Aram “sixty cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 90 feet (27.4 m) high.

[3:1]  ³¹ tn Aram “six cubits.” Assuming a length of 18 inches for the standard cubit, the image would be 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.

[3:2]  ³² sn The specific duties of the seven types of officials listed here (cf. vv. 3, 27) are unclear. The Aramaic words that are used are transliterations of Akkadian or Persian technical terms whose exact meanings are uncertain. The translations given here follow suggestions set forth in BDB.

[3:2]  ³³ tn Aram “Nebuchadnezzar the king.” The proper name and title have been replaced by the relative pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:3]  ³⁴ tc The LXX and Theodotion lack the words “that Nebuchadnezzar had erected.”

[3:4]  ³⁵ tn According to BDB 1097 s.v. כָּרוֹז the Aramaic word used here is a Greek loanword, but other scholars have argued instead for a Persian derivation (HALOT 1902 s.v. *כָּרוֹז).

[3:4]  ³⁶ tn Aram “in strength.”

[3:4]  ³⁷ tn Aram “they are saying.”

[3:5]  ³⁸ sn The word zither (Aramaic קִיתָרוֹס [qitaros]), and the words for harp (Aramaic פְּסַנְתֵּרִין [pÿsanterin]) and pipes (Aramaic סוּמְפֹּנְיָה [sumponÿyah]), are of Greek derivation. Though much has been made of this in terms of suggesting a date in the Hellenistic period for the writing of the book, it is not surprising that a few Greek cultural terms, all of them the names of musical instruments, should appear in this book. As a number of scholars have pointed out, the bigger surprise (if, in fact, the book is to be dated to the Hellenistic period) may be that there are so few Greek loanwords in Daniel.

[3:5]  ³⁹ tn The imperfect Aramaic verbs have here an injunctive nuance.

[3:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “in that hour.”

[3:7]  ⁴¹ tn Aram “all the peoples.”

[3:7]  ⁴² tc Though not in the Aramaic text of BHS, this word appears in many medieval Hebrew MSS, some LXX MSS, and Vulgate. Cf. vv. 5, 10, 15.