They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Parallel translations
- WEB They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
- BSB They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will 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 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
- Isa 41:24Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
- Jer 51:18They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
- Zech 13:2And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
- Isa 2:18–21And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
- Jer 8:19Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
- Jonah 2:8They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- Acts 14:15And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
- 1 Sam 12:21And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- Jer 10:11Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
- Zeph 1:3–4I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
- Deut 32:21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- Isa 41:29Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
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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.