Ulangan 4:28

4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

Mazmur 115:4

115:4 Their ¹  idols are made of silver and gold –

they are man-made. ² 

Yesaya 44:10-20

44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol

that will prove worthless? ³ 

44:11 Look, all his associates ⁴  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ⁵ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ⁶ 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ⁷  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ⁸ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ⁹ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ¹⁰ 

he scrapes ¹¹  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ¹² 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ¹³ 

44:14 He cuts down cedars

and acquires a cypress ¹⁴  or an oak.

He gets ¹⁵  trees from the forest;

he plants a cedar ¹⁶  and the rain makes it grow.

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ¹⁷ 

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. ¹⁸ 

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

over that half he cooks ¹⁹  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. ²⁰ 

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?’ ²¹ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ²² 

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?’ ²³ 

Yeremia 10:3-5

10:3 For the religion ²⁴  of these people is worthless.

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ²⁵ 

10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.

He uses hammer and nails to fasten it ²⁶  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.” ²⁷ 

Kisah Para Rasul 17:29

17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity ²⁸  is like gold or silver or stone, an image ²⁹  made by human ³⁰  skill ³¹  and imagination. ³² 

Kisah Para Rasul 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ³³  Amphipolis ³⁴  and Apollonia, ³⁵  they came to Thessalonica, ³⁶  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ³⁷ 

1 Korintus 8:4

8:4 With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.” ³⁸ 

1 Korintus 9:20

9:20 To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) ³⁹  to gain those under the law.

[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.”

[44:10]  ³ tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”

[44:11]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”

[44:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ¹² tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

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

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

[44:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).

[44:14]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ¹⁸ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ²³ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[10:3]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.

[10:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[17:29]  ²⁸ tn Or “the divine being.” BDAG 446 s.v. θεῖος 1.b has “divine being, divinity” here.

[17:29]  ²⁹ tn Or “a likeness.” Again idolatry is directly attacked as an affront to God and a devaluation of him.

[17:29]  ³⁰ tn Grk “by the skill and imagination of man,” but ἀνθρώπου (anqrwpou) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[17:29]  ³¹ tn Or “craftsmanship” (cf. BDAG 1001 s.v. τέχνη).

[17:29]  ³² tn Or “thought.” BDAG 336 s.v. ἐνθύμησις has “thought, reflection, idea” as the category of meaning here, but in terms of creativity (as in the context) the imaginative faculty is in view.

[17:1]  ³³ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ³⁴ sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ³⁵ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ³⁶ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[17:1]  ³⁷ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[8:4]  ³⁸ sn “An idol in this world is nothing” and “There is no God but one.” Here and in v. 1 Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior (cf. 6:12-13; 7:1; 10:23). Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.

[9:20]  ³⁹ tc The Byzantine text, as well as a few other witnesses (D² [L] Ψ 1881 Ï) lack this parenthetical material, while geographically widespread, early, and diverse witnesses have the words (so א A B C D* F G P 33 104 365 1175 1505 1739 al latt). The phrase may have dropped out accidentally through homoioteleuton (note that both the preceding phrase and the parenthesis end in ὑπὸ νόμον [Jupo nomon, “under the law”]), or intentionally by overscrupulous scribes who felt that the statement “I myself am not under the law” could have led to license.