Jeremiah 10:14

14 The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power.

Jeremiah 10:14 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 10:14

Every man is brutish in his knowledge
Or science of making an idol, whether it be of wood, or of gold, or silver, or brass; he is no better than a brute, if he thinks, when he has made it, he has made a god: or, "because of knowledge" ^F23; for want of it; being without the knowledge of God and divine things, he is like the beasts that perish, ( Psalms 49:20 ) : every founder is confounded by the graven image;
or put to shame on account of it; since, after all his art, and care, and trouble, in melting and refining, and casting it into a form, it is no more than a piece of gold, or silver, or brass, and has no deity, nor anything like it, in it: for his molten image is falsehood;
it is a lie, when it is said to be a god; and it deceives those who worship it, and place any confidence in it. Kimchi renders it, "his covering" ^F24. The covering of the idol with gold and silver, with blue and purple, as in ( Jeremiah 10:4 Jeremiah 10:9 ) , is all a piece of deceit, to impose upon the people, and lead them into idolatry: and there is no breath in them;
they are mere stocks and stones, lifeless and inanimate creatures; they have neither life themselves, nor can they give it to others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (tedm) "propter scientiam", Pagninus, Montanus; "a scientia", Calvin, Grotius, Schmidt.
F24 (wkon) "tectio, [sive] obductio ejus", Vatablus.

Jeremiah 10:14 In-Context

12 But the LORD made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.

13 When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.

14 The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power.

15 Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.

16 But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including Israel, his own special possession. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is his name!