Jeremiah 10:3

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

customs: Heb. statutes, or ordinances, are vanity, Jeremiah 10:8, Jeremiah 2:5, Leviticus 18:30, 1 Kings 18:26-28, Matthew 6:7, Romans 1:21, 1 Peter 1:18

one: Isaiah 40:19-31, Isaiah 44:9-20, Isaiah 45:20, Hosea 8:4-6, Habakkuk 2:18, Habakkuk 2:19

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:4 - General Exodus 23:19 - Thou shalt not seethe a kid Leviticus 26:1 - Ye shall Deuteronomy 4:28 - neither see Judges 17:3 - a graven image 1 Kings 16:13 - vanities 1 Kings 16:26 - their vanities 2 Kings 17:29 - made gods 2 Kings 19:18 - for they were 2 Chronicles 32:19 - the work Psalms 96:5 - For Psalms 115:4 - Their idols Psalms 135:15 - idols Isaiah 36:18 - Hath Isaiah 37:19 - no gods Isaiah 40:20 - chooseth Isaiah 41:7 - the carpenter Isaiah 44:12 - The smith Isaiah 44:14 - heweth Isaiah 46:6 - lavish Hosea 8:6 - the workman Acts 14:15 - from Acts 16:21 - General Acts 17:22 - I perceive Acts 19:26 - that they Galatians 4:8 - ye did Revelation 9:20 - and idols

Cross-References

Jeremiah 51:27
Raise a banner in the land; blow a horn among the nations; prepare for holy war against her; summon the nations against her, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; summon against her an official; bring up horses like bristling creeping locusts.

Ezekiel 27:14
From Beth Togarmah they exchanged horses and war horses and mules for your wares.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the customs of the people are vain,.... Or, "their decrees", or "statutes" o, their determinations and conclusions, founded upon the observation of the stars; or, their "rites and ceremonies" p 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.

o חקות "decreta", Targ.; "statua", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt. p Ritus, Vatablus "ceremoniae", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The customs - Better, as the marg, “the ordinances,” established institutions, “of the peoples, i. e.” pagan nations.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 10:3. The customs of the people are vain — חקות chukkoth; the statutes and principles of the science are vain, empty, and illusory. They are founded in nonsense, ignorance, idolatry, and folly.

One cutteth a tree out of the forest — Isaiah 40:19, and "Isaiah 44:9", &c., which are all parallel places and where this conduct is strongly ridiculed.