15 pThe idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were eno gods, but fthe work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
The Folly of Idolatry
9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in edo not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be fput to shame. 10 Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil.1 He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He gprays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Idols and the Living God
1 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:
x“Learn not the way of the nations,
nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
because the nations are dismayed at them,
3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity.1
A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a ycraftsman.
4 They decorate it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
5 Their idols2 are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and zthey cannot speak;
athey have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for bthey cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
58 “We heard him say, ‘I will zdestroy this atemple that is made with hands, and in bthree days I will build another, not made with hands.’”
48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
Our Heavenly Dwelling
1 For we know that if the stent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a thouse not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
11 In him also you were fcircumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by gputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places cmade with hands, which are copies of the dtrue things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
