Mazmur 115:3-8
Konteks115:3 Our God is in heaven!
He does whatever he pleases! 1
115:4 Their 2 idols are made of silver and gold –
they are man-made. 3
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. 4
115:8 Those who make them will end up 5 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
Mazmur 135:15
Konteks135:15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold,
they are man-made. 6
Mazmur 135:18
Konteks135:18 Those who make them will end up 7 like them,
as will everyone who trusts in them.
Yesaya 44:8-28
Konteks44:8 Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! 8
Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?
You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?
There is no other sheltering rock; 9 I know of none.
44:9 All who form idols are nothing;
the things in which they delight are worthless.
Their witnesses cannot see;
they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless? 10
44:11 Look, all his associates 11 will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans. 12
Let them all assemble and take their stand!
They will panic and be put to shame.
44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool 13
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it 14 with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy; 15
he drinks no water and gets tired.
44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 16
he marks out an outline of its form; 17
he scrapes 18 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 19
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 20
44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 21 or an oak.
He gets 22 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 23 and the rain makes it grow.
44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; 24
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. 25
44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –
over that half he cooks 26 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. 27
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?’ 28
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?’ 30
44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
O Israel, for you are my servant.
I formed you to be my servant;
O Israel, I will not forget you! 31
44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,
the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. 32
Come back to me, for I protect 33 you.”
44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; 34
shout out, you subterranean regions 35 of the earth.
O mountains, give a joyful shout;
you too, O forest and all your trees! 36
For the Lord protects 37 Jacob;
he reveals his splendor through Israel. 38
44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, 39 says,
the one who formed you in the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made everything,
who alone stretched out the sky,
who fashioned the earth all by myself, 40
44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers 41
and humiliates 42 the omen readers,
who overturns the counsel of the wise men 43
and makes their advice 44 seem foolish,
44:26 who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants 45
and brings to pass the announcements 46 of his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, 47 ‘She will be inhabited,’
and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,
her ruins I will raise up,’
44:27 who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry!
I will dry up your sea currents,’
44:28 who commissions 48 Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd 49
to carry out all my wishes 50
and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’
and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” 51
Yesaya 46:1-2
KonteksNebo 53 bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts. 54
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. 55
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 56
they themselves 57 head off into captivity. 58
Yeremia 10:3-5
Konteks10:3 For the religion 59 of these people is worthless.
They cut down a tree in the forest,
and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 60
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.
He uses hammer and nails to fasten it 61 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.” 62
Yeremia 10:11-12
Konteks10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:
‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.
They will disappear 63 from the earth and from under the heavens.’ 64
10:12 The Lord is the one who 65 by his power made the earth.
He is the one who by his wisdom established the world.
And by his understanding he spread out the skies.
Yeremia 10:14-15
Konteks10:14 All these idolaters 66 will prove to be stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.
For the image he forges is merely a sham. 67
There is no breath in any of those idols. 68
10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. 69
When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
Kisah Para Rasul 19:26
Konteks19:26 And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded 70 and turned away 71 a large crowd, 72 not only in Ephesus 73 but in practically all of the province of Asia, 74 by saying 75 that gods made by hands are not gods at all. 76
Kisah Para Rasul 19:1
Konteks19:1 While 77 Apollos was in Corinth, 78 Paul went through the inland 79 regions 80 and came to Ephesus. 81 He 82 found some disciples there 83
Kolose 1:4
Konteks1:4 since 84 we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.
[115:3] 1 sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).
[115:4] 2 tn The referent of the pronominal suffix is “the nations” (v. 2).
[115:4] 3 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
[115:7] 4 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] 5 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.”
[115:8] sn Because the idols are lifeless, they cannot help their worshipers in times of crisis. Consequently the worshipers end up as dead as the gods in which they trust.
[135:15] 6 tn Heb “the work of the hands of man.”
[135:18] 7 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.”
[135:18] sn Because the idols are lifeless, they cannot help their worshipers in times of crisis. Consequently the worshipers end up as dead as the gods in which they trust.
[44:8] 8 tn BDB 923 s.v. רָהָה derives this verb from an otherwise unattested root, while HALOT 403 s.v. יָרָה defines it as “be stupefied” on the basis of an Arabic cognate. The form is likely a corruption of תיראו, the reading attested in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa.
[44:8] 9 tn Heb “rock” or “rocky cliff,” a title that depicts God as a protective refuge in his role as sovereign king; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”
[44:10] 10 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
[44:11] 11 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] 12 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] 13 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] 14 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] 15 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”
[44:13] 16 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
[44:13] 17 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] 18 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
[44:13] 19 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
[44:13] 20 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
[44:14] 21 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
[44:14] 22 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
[44:14] 23 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] 24 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
[44:15] 25 tn Or perhaps, “them.”
[44:16] 26 tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”
[44:18] 27 tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”
[44:19] 28 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] 29 tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”
[44:20] 30 tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”
[44:21] 31 tc The verb in the Hebrew text is a Niphal imperfect with a pronominal suffix. Although the Niphal ordinarily has the passive sense, it can have a reflexive nuance as well (see above translation). Some have suggested an emendation to a Qal form: “Do not forget me” (all the ancient versions, NEB, REB; see GKC 369 §117.x). “Do not forget me” would make a good parallel with “remember these things” in the first line. Since the MT is the harder reading and fits with Israel’s complaint that God had forgotten her (Isa 40:27), the MT reading should be retained (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, ESV). The passive has been rendered as an active in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style (so also NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).
[44:22] 32 tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).
[44:22] 33 tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.
[44:23] 34 tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”
[44:23] 35 tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.
[44:23] 36 tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”
[44:23] 37 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
[44:23] 38 tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”
[44:24] 39 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
[44:24] 40 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.
[44:25] 41 tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).
[44:25] 42 tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.
[44:25] 43 tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”
[44:25] 44 tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
[44:26] 45 tn Heb “the word of his servant.” The following context indicates that the Lord’s prophets are in view.
[44:26] 46 tn Heb “counsel.” The Hebrew term עֵצָה (’etsah) probably refers here to the divine plan as announced by the prophets. See HALOT 867 s.v. I עֵצָה.
[44:26] 47 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[44:28] 48 tn Heb “says to.” It is possible that the sentence is not completed, as the description of Cyrus and his God-given role is developed in the rest of the verse. 45:1 picks up where 44:28a leaves off with the Lord’s actual words to Cyrus finally being quoted in 45:2.
[44:28] 49 tn Heb “my shepherd.” The shepherd motif is sometimes applied, as here, to a royal figure who is responsible for the well-being of the people whom he rules.
[44:28] 50 tn Heb “that he might bring to completion all my desire.”
[44:28] 51 tn Heb “and [concerning the] temple, you will be founded.” The preposition -לְ (lÿ) is understood by ellipsis at the beginning of the second line. The verb תִּוָּסֵד (tivvased, “you will be founded”) is second masculine singular and is probably addressed to the personified temple (הֵיכָל [hekhal, “temple”] is masculine).
[46:1] 52 sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.
[46:1] 53 sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.
[46:1] 54 tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”
[46:1] 55 tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”
[46:2] 56 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
[46:2] 57 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
[46:2] 58 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
[10:3] 59 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] 60 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] 61 tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.
[10:5] 62 tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”
[10:11] 63 tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.
[10:11] 64 tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the
[10:11] sn This passage is carefully structured and placed to contrast the
[10:12] 65 tn The words “The
[10:14] 66 tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.
[10:14] 67 tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”
[10:14] 68 tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.
[10:15] 69 tn Or “objects of mockery.”
[19:26] 70 tn Grk “persuading.” The participle πείσας (peisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
[19:26] 72 tn BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 3.a has “of pers. ὄχλος a large crowd…Ac 11:24, 26; 19:26.”
[19:26] 73 map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.
[19:26] 74 tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 22.
[19:26] 75 tn The participle λέγων (legwn) has been regarded as indicating instrumentality.
[19:26] 76 tn The words “at all” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
[19:26] sn Gods made by hands are not gods at all. Paul preached against paganism’s idolatry. Here is a one-line summary of a speech like that in Acts 17:22-31.
[19:1] 77 tn Grk “It happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
[19:1] 78 map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.
[19:1] 80 tn BDAG 92 s.v. ἀνωτερικός has “upper τὰ ἀ. μέρη the upper (i.e. inland) country, the interior Ac 19:1.”
[19:1] 81 map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.
[19:1] 82 tn Grk “and found.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the sequencing with the following verse the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.
[19:1] 83 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.
[1:4] 84 tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).
