Habakuk 2:18

Schlachter Bibel

Was nützt ein gemeißeltes Bild, daß der Bildhauer es geschaffen hat, ein gegossenes Bild und ein Lügenlehrer dazu? Denn der es gemacht hat, vertraut auf sein eigenes Machwerk, so daß er stumme Götzen verfertigt.

Parallel Translations

Lutherbible (1912)
Was wird dann helfen das Bild, das sein Meister gebildet hat, und das falsche gegossene Bild, darauf sich verläßt sein Meister, daß er stumme Götzen machte?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

profiteth: Isaiah 37:38, Isaiah 42:17, Isaiah 44:9, Isaiah 44:10, Isaiah 45:16, Isaiah 45:20, Isaiah 46:1, Isaiah 46:2, Isaiah 46:6-8, Jeremiah 2:27, Jeremiah 2:28, Jeremiah 10:3-5, Jeremiah 50:2, Romans 6:21

a teacher: Jeremiah 10:8, Jeremiah 10:14, Jeremiah 10:15, Jonah 2:8, Zechariah 10:2, Romans 1:23-25, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11, 1 Timothy 4:1, 1 Timothy 4:2, Revelation 13:11-15, Revelation 19:20

that the: Psalms 115:4-8, Psalms 135:15-18, Isaiah 1:31, Isaiah 44:14-20

maker of his work: Heb. fashioner of his fashion

dumb: 1 Corinthians 12:2

Reciprocal: Judges 17:3 - a graven image Judges 18:24 - what have 1 Samuel 12:21 - vain things 1 Kings 18:26 - no voice Psalms 115:8 - General Ecclesiastes 1:3 - profit Isaiah 26:14 - dead Isaiah 40:19 - General Isaiah 41:26 - declared Isaiah 41:29 - they are all Isaiah 44:20 - Is there Jeremiah 2:8 - do not Jeremiah 13:25 - trusted Jeremiah 16:19 - Surely Jeremiah 50:38 - the land Jeremiah 51:17 - brutish by his knowledge Ezekiel 6:6 - your works Ezekiel 24:12 - wearied Daniel 5:23 - which Hosea 8:6 - the workman Hosea 13:2 - have made Amos 2:4 - and their Acts 7:41 - rejoiced Romans 1:25 - into a lie 2 Timothy 2:14 - to no Revelation 9:20 - and idols

Gill's Notes on the Bible

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it,.... The graven images the church of Rome enjoins the worship of; the images of the Trinity, of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, of angels and saints departed, and which are still continued since the Reformation; but of what profit and advantage are they? they may be profitable to the graver, who is paid for graving them; and the metal or matters of which they are made, if sold, and converted to another use, may turn to account; but as deities, and worshipped as such, they are of no profit to them that worship them; they can not hear their prayers, nor answer them; can not bestow any favours on them, and deliver them out of any distress; and particularly can not save them from the judgments before denounced:

the molten image, and a teacher of lies: nor is a molten image any ways profitable, which is made of liquid matter, gold or silver melted and poured into a mould, from whence it receives its form: it may be profitable to the founder, and the metal to the owner, if put to another use; but, as a god, is of no service; and both the graven and molten image, the one and the other, each of then is "a teacher of lies", and so unprofitable; if they are laymen's books, as they are said to be, they do not teach them truth; they do not teach them what God is in his nature and perfections; what Christ is in his person and offices; what angels are, who are incorporeal; nor the saints, they neither describe the shape and features of their body, nor express their characters, minds, or manners; they teach men to believe lies, and to worship false deities, as they are. So the Targum renders it, a false deity; which imposes on men, and therefore cannot profit them: or this may be understood of an idolatrous priest, as Aben Ezra; as the idol itself cannot profit, so neither can the priest that teaches men such lies as to worship the idol, and put trust in it:

that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? or, "whilst making dumb idols" m; which is great stupidity indeed! that while a man is graving an image, or casting an idol, which are lifeless senseless things, that can neither move nor speak, yea, are his workmanship, yet puts his trust and confidence in them, that they can do him service he needs, help him in distress, and save him out of his troubles; what profit can be expected from these, though ever so nicely framed, when he considers they are of his own framing, and that they are idols, which are nothing in the world, as the word n here used signifies; and dumb ones, which can give no answer to the requests of their votaries? The Targum is,

"idols in whom there is no profit.''

m לעשות אלילים אלמים "faciendo idola muta", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus. n אלילים "dii nihili", Drusius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

What profiteth - (Hath profited) הועיל מה. Samuel warned them, “Serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside; for (it would be) after vanities which will not profit nor deliver for they are vain:” and Jeremiah tells their past; “their prophets prophesied by Baal; and after things יועילי לא which profit not, have they gone.” Elsewhere the idol is spoken of as a thing “which will not profit” (future) “My people hath changed its glory יועיל בלא for that which profiteth not,” Jeremiah 2:8, Jeremiah 2:11. So Isaiah, “Who hath formed a god, הועיל לבלתי not to profit.” Isaiah 44:9.Isaiah 44:10. “The makers of a graven image are all of them vanity, and their desirable things יועילו בל will not profit.”

The graven image, that the maker therefore hath graven it? - What did Baal and Ashtaroth profit you? What availed it ever but to draw down the wrath of God? Even so neither shall it profit the Chaldaean. As their idols availed them not, so neither need they fear them. Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar were propagandists of their own belief and would destroy, if they could, all other worship, false or true : Nebuchadnezzar is thought to have set up his own image Daniel 3:0. Antichrist will set himself up as God 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:15-17. We may take warning at least by our own sins. If we had no profit at all from them, neither will the like profit others. the Jews did, in the main, learn this in their captivity.

The molten image and teacher of lies - It is all one whether by “teacher of lies” we understand the idol , or its priest . For its priest gave it its voice, as its maker created its form. It could only seem to teach through the idol-priest. Isaiah used the title “teacher of lies,” of the false prophet Isaiah 9:14. It is all one. Zechariah combines them Zechariah 10:2; “The teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have had false dreams.”

That the maker of his work trusteth therein - This was the special folly of idolatry. The thing made must needs he inferior to its maker. It was one of the corruptions of idolatry that the maker of his own work should trust in what was wholly his own creation, what, not God, but himself created, what had nothing but what it had from himself . He uses the very words which express the relation of man to God, “the Framer” and “the thing framed.” Isaiah 29:16, “O your perverseness! Shall the framer be accounted as clay, theft the thing made should say of its Maker, He made me not, and the thing framed say of its Framer, He hath no hands?” The idol-maker is “the creator of his creature,” of his god whom he worships. Again the idol-maker makes “dumb idols” (literally, “dumb nothings”) in themselves nothings, and having no power out of themselves; and what is uttered in their name, are but lies. And what else are man’s idols of wealth, honor, fame, which he makes to himself, the creatures of his own hands or mind, their greatness existing chiefly in his own imagination before which he bows down himself, who is the image of God?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Habakkuk 2:18. What profiteth the graven image — This is against idolatry in general, and every species of it, as well as against those princes, priests, and people who practice it, and encourage others to do the same. See on the parallel passages in the margin. (Isaiah 44:9-10; Isaiah 46:2)

Dumb idols? — אלילים אלמים elilim illemim, "dumb nothings." This is exactly agreeable to St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 8:4, who says, "An idol is nothing in the world." What signify the idols worshipped by the Chaldeans, Tyrians, and Egyptians? They have not been able to save their worshippers.