To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?
Parallel translations
- WEB A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
- KJV The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
- NKJV The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains.
- NASB As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
- NLT Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Idols are merely manufactured objects, cast by craftsmen and overlaid with gold and silver.
Overview
In sharp contrast to the living God, an idol is the product of human labor and precious metals. Isaiah exposes the absurdity of worshiping something one's own hands have made. The mockery underscores that only the uncreated Creator is worthy of worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 10:9Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsman from the hands of a goldsmith. Their clothes are blue and purple, all fashioned by skilled workers.
- Isa 46:6–7They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
- Judg 17:4So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.
- Exod 32:2–4So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
- Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- Hab 2:18–19What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
- Isa 37:18–19Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.
- Isa 44:10–12Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?
- Isa 2:20In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.
- Ps 135:15The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- Jer 10:3–5For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
- Hos 8:6For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.
- Ps 135:18Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Isa 41:6–7Each one helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 40:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.