Isaiah 44:20

The idolater feeds on ashes, deceived in heart, unable to save himself or see the lie in his hand. It sums up idolatry as self-deception that ends in emptiness.

Cross-references · 24

• Job 15:31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
• Rom 1:28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
• Hos 12:1Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
• Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
• 2 Tim 2:13If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
• Rom 1:25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
• Hos 4:12My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
• Hab 2:18What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
• Luke 15:16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
• 2 Th 2:9–11Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
• 1 Tim 4:2Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
• 2 Tim 3:13But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
• Rom 1:20–22For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
• Rev 13:14And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
• Rev 20:3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
• Rev 12:9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
• Jer 16:19O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
• Rev 18:23And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
• 1 Kgs 22:20–23And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
• Prov 15:14The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.
• Isa 28:15–17Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
• Isa 59:13In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
• Isa 59:3–4For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
• Job 15:2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

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