Jeremiah 10:14

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. ² Thus says Yahweh: "You must not learn the way of the nations, and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them. ³ For the statutes of the peoples are vanity, for it is a tree cut down from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with the tool. ⁴ He decorates it with silver and gold, they strengthen it with nails and hammers, so that it does not stagger. ⁵ They are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, they cannot speak. Indeed, they must be carried, for they cannot march. You must not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil; furthermore, to do good is not in them." ⁶ There is none like you, O Yahweh, you are great and your name is great in might. ⁷ Who would not revere you, O king of the nations? For you it is fitting. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. ⁸ At the same time they are stupid and foolish, in the instruction of idols, it is wood. ⁹ Silver beaten from Tarshish is brought, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and the hands of the goldsmith. Blue and purple are their clothing, all of them are the work of skillful people. ¹⁰ But Yahweh is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king. Because of his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his anger.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

man: Jeremiah 10:8, Jeremiah 51:17, Jeremiah 51:18, Psalms 14:2, Psalms 92:6, Psalms 94:8, Proverbs 30:2, Isaiah 44:18-20, Isaiah 46:7, Isaiah 46:8, Romans 1:22, Romans 1:23

brutish in his knowledge: or, more brutish than to know, founder. Jeremiah 51:17, Psalms 97:7, Isaiah 42:17, Isaiah 44:11, Isaiah 45:16

and: Psalms 115:4-8, Psalms 135:16-18, Habakkuk 2:18, Habakkuk 2:19

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:4 - General Exodus 34:17 - General 1 Kings 14:9 - thou hast gone 2 Kings 19:18 - for they were Psalms 40:4 - as turn Psalms 96:5 - For Isaiah 1:3 - but Israel Isaiah 19:11 - brutish Isaiah 41:24 - ye are Isaiah 44:9 - make Isaiah 45:20 - they Isaiah 46:6 - lavish Jeremiah 2:5 - walked Jeremiah 3:23 - in vain Jeremiah 10:21 - the pastors Jeremiah 13:25 - trusted Jeremiah 16:19 - Surely Ezekiel 24:12 - wearied Hosea 8:6 - the workman Jonah 2:8 - General Acts 14:15 - from Acts 19:26 - that they Romans 1:21 - but became Romans 1:25 - into a lie Romans 10:19 - foolish 1 Corinthians 8:4 - we know Revelation 9:20 - and idols Revelation 13:15 - life

Cross-References

Deuteronomy 2:23
And also the Avvites, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and the Caphtorim, who came out from Caphtor, destroyed them and then settled in their place.

1 Chronicles 1:12
the Pathrusim, the Casluhim (from whence the Philistines descended), and the Caphtorim.

Isaiah 11:11
And this shall happen on that day: The Lord will again extend his hand a second time to acquire the remnant of his people that is left, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,

Jeremiah 44:1
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, who were living at Migdol, and Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying,

Jeremiah 47:4
Because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon every survivor who could help, for Yahweh is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

Amos 9:7
"Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?" declares Yahweh. "Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" w; 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" x. The covering of the idol with gold and silver, with blue and purple, as in Jeremiah 10:4, 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.

w מדעת "propter scientiam", Pagninus, Montanus; "a scientia", Calvin, Grotius, Schmidt. x נסכו "tectio, [sive] obductio ejus", Vatablus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In his knowledge - Rather, “without knowledge; i. e., on comparing his powerless idols with the terrific grandeur of a tropical thunderstorm the man who can still worship them instead of the Creator is destitute of knowledge.

Every founder ... - Or, “every goldsmith is put to shame etc.” He has exhausted his skill on what remains an image.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 10:14. Every man is brutish — נבער nibar, is a boor, acts as a brute, who may suppose that a stock of a tree, formed like a man, may be an intellectual being; and therefore shuns the form as though it had life. See Isaiah 44:10-11. Of which verses, by the way, Dr. Blayney gives the following version to correct that of Bishop Lowth: -

Isaiah 44:10; Isaiah 44:10. Who hath formed a god?

Or set up a graven image that profiteth not?

Isaiah 44:11. Behold, all that are connected with it shall be

ashamed,

And the artificers, they above all men!

They shall assemble all of them; they shall stand

forth;

They shall fear; they shall be ashamed at the same

time.

"That is, while they stand before the image they have set up, and worship it with a religious dread, the glaring absurdity of their conduct shall lead to their shame and disgrace."

With due deference to this learned man, I think this interpretation too refined.