Yirmeyah 10:4

4 They deck it with kesef and with zahav; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it topple not.

Yirmeyah 10:4 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 10:4

They deck it with silver and with gold
Cover it with plates of silver and gold, for the sake of ornament, that it may look grand, majestic, and venerable; and by this means draw the eye and attention, and so the devotion of people to it: they fasten it with nails and hammers, that it move not.
The sense is, either that the idol was fastened to some post or pillar, or in some certain place on a pedestal, that it might not fall, it not being able otherwise to support itself; or the plates of silver and gold, as Kimchi thinks, were fastened to the idol with nails and hammers, that so they might not be taken away from it; for, were it not for the nails, the god would not be able to keep his silver and golden deckings.

Yirmeyah 10:4 In-Context

2 Thus saith Hashem, Learn not the Derech HaGoyim, and be not in awe of the otot HaShomayim; though the Goyim are in awe of them.

3 For the [religious] chukkot (customs, statutes) of the nations are vain delusions; for one cutteth etz out of the ya’ar (forest), the ma’aseh (handiwork) of the hands of the charash (workman, artisan), with the axe.

4 They deck it with kesef and with zahav; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it topple not.

5 They [the idols] are upright as the tomer (palm tree], but speak not; they must needs be carried, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do rah, neither also is it in them to do tov.

6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto Thee, Hashem; Thou art gadol, and Thy Shem is gadol in gevurah.