Discovery BoxPsalms 115:4-8
Context115:4 Their 1 idols are made of silver and gold –
they are man-made. 2
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. 3
115:8 Those who make them will end up 4 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
Psalms 135:15-18
Context135:15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold,
they are man-made. 5
135:16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.
Indeed, they cannot breathe. 6
135:18 Those who make them will end up 7 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
Isaiah 44:9-20
Context44:9 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? 8
44:11 Look, all his associates 9 will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans. 10
Let them all assemble and take their stand!
They will panic and be put to shame.
44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool 11
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it 12 with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy; 13
he drinks no water and gets tired.
44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 14
he marks out an outline of its form; 15
he scrapes 16 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 17
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 18
44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 19 or an oak.
He gets 20 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 21 and the rain makes it grow.
44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; 22
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. 23
44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –
over that half he cooks 24 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. 25
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?’ 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?’ 28
Jeremiah 10:3-5
Context10:3 For the religion 29 of these people is worthless.
They cut down a tree in the forest,
and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 30
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.
He uses hammer and nails to fasten it 31 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.” 32
Hosea 8:5-6
Context8:5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol!
My anger burns against them!
They will not survive much longer without being punished, 33
even though they are Israelites!
8:6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God!
The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
Micah 4:5
Context4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, 34
we will follow 35 the Lord our God forever.
Romans 1:23
Context1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings 36 or birds or four-footed animals 37 or reptiles.
[115:4] 1 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
[115:4] 2 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
[115:7] 3 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] 4 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.”
[135:15] 5 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
[135:17] 6 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] 7 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] 8 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
[44:11] 9 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] 10 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] 11 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] 12 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] 13 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”
[44:13] 14 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
[44:13] 15 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] 16 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
[44:13] 17 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
[44:13] 18 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
[44:14] 19 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
[44:14] 20 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
[44:14] 21 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] 22 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
[44:15] 23 tn Or perhaps, “them.”
[44:16] 24 tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”
[44:18] 25 tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”
[44:19] 26 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] 27 tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”
[44:20] 28 tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”
[10:3] 29 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] 30 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] 31 tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.
[10:5] 32 tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”
[8:5] 33 tn Heb “How long will they be able to be free from punishment?” This rhetorical question affirms that Israel will not survive much longer until God punishes it.
[4:5] 34 tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
[4:5] 35 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
[1:23] 36 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] 37 sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.
