2:8 Their land is full of worthless idols;
they worship 1 the product of their own hands,
what their own fingers have fashioned.
2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,
they lie flat on the ground in worship. 2
Don’t spare them! 3
44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 4
he marks out an outline of its form; 5
he scrapes 6 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 7
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 8
44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 9 or an oak.
He gets 10 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 11 and the rain makes it grow.
44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; 12
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. 13
44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –
over that half he cooks 14 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. 15
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?’ 16
10:3 For the religion 17 of these people is worthless.
They cut down a tree in the forest,
and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 18
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.
He uses hammer and nails to fasten it 19 together
so that it will not fall over.