Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ¹  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ² 

Psalms 115:4-8

115:4 Their ³  idols are made of silver and gold –

they are man-made. ⁴ 

115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,

eyes, but cannot see,

115:6 ears, but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell,

115:7 hands, but cannot touch,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot even clear their throats. ⁵ 

115:8 Those who make them will end up ⁶  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 44:9-20

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.

44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol

that will prove worthless? ⁷ 

44:11 Look, all his associates ⁸  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ⁹ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ¹⁰ 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ¹¹  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ¹² 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ¹³ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ¹⁴ 

he scrapes ¹⁵  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ¹⁶ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ¹⁷ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ¹⁸  or an oak.

He gets ¹⁹  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ²⁰  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ²¹ 

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. ²² 

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

over that half he cooks ²³  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. ²⁴ 

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?’ ²⁵ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ²⁶ 

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?’ ²⁷ 

Isaiah 46:6-8

46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse

and weigh out silver on the scale ²⁸ 

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 ²⁹  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! ³⁰ 

Think about it, you rebels! ³¹ 

Habakkuk 2:18-19

2:18 What good ³²  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ³³ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³⁴ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ³⁵ 

and make ³⁶  such mute, worthless things?

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ³⁷  –

he who says ³⁸  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ³⁹ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

[10:8]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[115:4]  ³ tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).

[115:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”

[115:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “they cannot mutter in their throats.” Verse 5a refers to speaking, v. 7c to inarticulate sounds made in the throat (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:140-41).

[115:8]  ⁶ 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.”

[44:10]  ⁷ tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”

[44:11]  ⁸ tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.

[44:11]  ⁹ sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”

[44:12]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

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

[44:13]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:14]  ¹⁸ tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).

[44:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:16]  ²³ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[46:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.

[46:7]  ²⁹ tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.

[46:8]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “return [it], rebels, to heart”; NRSV “recall it to mind, you transgressors.”

[2:18]  ³² tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ³³ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ³⁴ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:19]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:19]  ³⁸ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ³⁹ tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).