Isaiah 44:9

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.

Isaiah 44:20

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ¹ 

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?’ ² 

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 46:7-8

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 ³  move from its place.

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

it does not deliver him from his distress.

46:8 Remember this, so you can be brave! ⁴ 

Think about it, you rebels! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ⁶  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ⁷ 

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ⁸  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. ⁹ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹⁰ 

Romans 1:21-23

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ¹¹  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ¹²  to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ¹³  or birds or four-footed animals ¹⁴  or reptiles.

[44:20]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ² tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[46:7]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.

[46:8]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “return [it], rebels, to heart”; NRSV “recall it to mind, you transgressors.”

[10:8]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.”

[10:14]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ¹⁰ 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.

[1:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ¹² tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:23]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.