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 135:16-18
Context135:16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see,
135:17 and ears, but cannot hear.
Indeed, they cannot breathe. 5
135:18 Those who make them will end up 6 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
Habakkuk 2:18-19
Context2:18 What good 7 is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? 8
What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? 9
Why would its creator place his trust in it 10
and make 11 such mute, worthless things?
2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 12 –
he who says 13 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 14
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
[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.”
[135:17] 5 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] 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.”
[2:18] 7 tn Or “of what value.”
[2:18] 8 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] 9 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] 10 tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.
[2:19] 12 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] 13 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
[2:19] 14 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).
