They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- BSB Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- NKJV Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.
- NASB Those who make them will become like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- NLT And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
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
Those who make and trust idols become as lifeless and powerless as the idols themselves.
Overview
This verse warns that worship is transforming: people grow to resemble what they revere. Trusting in dead idols leaves the worshiper spiritually dead and helpless. The principle holds positively as well, for those who behold the Lord are changed into His likeness, a transformation completed through union with Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 115:8They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
- Isa 44:18–20They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
- 2 Cor 4:4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- Ps 97:7Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 135:18 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.