Jeremiah 10:15

10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. ¹ 

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

Jeremiah 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ² 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ³ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁵  with false gods, ⁶ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁷ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁸ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁹  I will enrage them.

Isaiah 41:29

41:29 Look, all of them are nothing, ¹⁰ 

their accomplishments are nonexistent;

their metal images lack any real substance. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 44:12-20

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ¹² 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ¹³  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ¹⁴ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ¹⁵ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ¹⁶ 

he scrapes ¹⁷  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ¹⁸ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ¹⁹ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ²⁰  or an oak.

He gets ²¹  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ²²  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ²³ 

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. ²⁴ 

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

over that half he cooks ²⁵  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. ²⁶ 

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?’ ²⁷ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ²⁸ 

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?’ ²⁹ 

[10:15]  ¹ tn Or “objects of mockery.”

[16:19]  ² tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  ³ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ⁴ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

[32:21]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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.”

[41:29]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text has אָוֶן (’aven, “deception,” i.e., “false”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has אין (“nothing”), which forms a better parallel with אֶפֶס (’efes, “nothing”) in the next line. See also 40:17 and 41:12.

[41:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their statues are wind and nothing”; NASB “wind and emptiness”; NIV “wind and confusion.”

[44:12]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

[44:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:14]  ²⁰ tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).

[44:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ²⁴ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”