They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
Parallel translations
- WEB They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
- KJV They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
- NKJV They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
- NASB They are worthless, a work of mockery; At the time of their punishment they will perish.
- NLT Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.
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 vanity and a work of delusion that will perish when God visits in judgment. Their doom is certain.
Overview
Yahweh declares idols to be empty, deceptive things destined to perish in the time of their 'visitation' or judgment. What people trusted for help will itself be destroyed. The verse pronounces the final futility of idolatry and warns that all false objects of worship will be swept away, leaving only the eternal God who endures forever.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jer 14:22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.
- Isa 41:24Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
- Jer 51:18They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- Zech 13:2And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.
- Isa 2:18–21and the idols will vanish completely.
- Jer 8:19Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Jonah 2:8Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- Acts 14:15“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
- 1 Sam 12:21Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Jer 10:11Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”
- Zeph 1:3–4“I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the idols with their wicked worshipers. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
- Deut 32:21They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- Isa 41:29See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 10:15 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.