Jeremiah 10:4

4 They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 10:4 In-Context

2 This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

4 They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

5 Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

6 There is none like You, O LORD. You are great, and Your name is mighty in power.