Jeremiah 10:3

3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.

Jeremiah 10:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 10:3

For the customs of the people are vain
Or, "their decrees", or "statutes" ^F15, their determinations and conclusions, founded upon the observation of the stars; or, their "rites and ceremonies" ^F16 in religion, in the worship of the sun and moon, and the hosts of heaven. The Syriac version is, "the idols of the people are nothing"; and which appears by what follows: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest (the work of the hands of the
workman) with the axe;
not for building, or for burning, but to make a god of; the vanity, stupidity, and folly of which are manifest, when it is considered that the original of it is a tree that grew in the forest; the matter and substance of it the body and trunk of a tree cut down with an axe, and then hewed with the same, and planed with a plane, and formed into the image of a man, or of some creature; and now, to fall down and worship this must be vanity and madness to the last degree; see ( Isaiah 44:13-17 ) ( 45:20 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (twqx) "decreta", Targ.; "statua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt.
F16 Ritus, Vatablus; "ceremoniae", Tigurine version.

Jeremiah 10:3 In-Context

1 Hear you the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel:

2 thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good.