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 him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
• Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
• Hos 12:1Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
• Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
• 2 Tim 2:13If we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he can’t deny himself.”
• Rom 1:25who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
• Hos 4:12My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.
• Hab 2:18“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
• Luke 15:16He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
• 2 Th 2:9–11even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
• 1 Tim 4:2through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
• 2 Tim 3:13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
• Rom 1:20–22For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.
• Rev 13:14He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
• Rev 20:3and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
• Rev 12:9The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
• Jer 16:19Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.
• Rev 18:23The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived.
• 1 Kgs 22:20–23Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing; and another said another.
• Prov 15:14The heart of one who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
• Isa 28:15–17“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’”
• Isa 59:13transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following 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 mutters wickedness.
• Job 15:2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

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.