Yesaya 40:19

40:19 A craftsman casts ¹  an idol;

a metalsmith overlays it with gold

and forges silver chains for it.

Yesaya 44:10

44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol

that will prove worthless? ² 

Yesaya 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ³ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ⁴ 

he scrapes ⁵  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ⁶ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ⁷ 

[40:19]  ¹ tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”

[44:10]  ² tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”

[44:13]  ³ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”