But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
Parallel translations
- WEB But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- KJV But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- NKJV But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.
- NASB But they are altogether stupid and foolish; The instruction from idols is nothing but wood!
- NLT People who worship idols are stupid and foolish. The things they worship are made of wood!
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
Idol-worshipers are dull and foolish, instructed by gods that are nothing but wood. Trusting idols makes people as senseless as the idols themselves.
Overview
Yahweh declares that those taught by idols are 'brutish and foolish,' for their teacher 'is just wood.' Worshipers come to resemble the empty things they trust. The verse warns that idolatry corrupts the worshiper's own understanding, while pointing by contrast to the wisdom and life that come from knowing the true and living God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 10:14Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Zech 10:2For idols speak deceit and diviners see illusions; they tell false dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
- Ps 135:18Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Hab 2:18What 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.
- Ps 115:8Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Rom 1:21–22For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.
- Jer 51:17–18Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 41:29See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Jer 2:27say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’
- Jer 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Isa 44:19And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
- Hos 4:12My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 10:8 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.