Jeremiah 2:27
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
27 who say to a tree, “You are my father,”
and to a stone, “You gave me birth.”
For they have turned their backs to me
and not their faces.
But in the time of their trouble they say,
“Come and save us!”(A)
Isaiah 26:16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a prayer[a]
when your chastening was on them.(A)
Footnotes
- 26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Hosea 7:14
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14 They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds;
they gash themselves for grain and wine;
they rebel against me.(A)
Habakkuk 2:18-19
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18 What use is an idol
once its maker has shaped it—
a cast image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in what has been made,
though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!(A)
19 Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”
to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated,
and there is no breath in it at all.(B)
Hosea 5:15
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15 I will return again to my place
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
In their distress they will beg my favor:(A)
Ezekiel 23:35
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35 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitutions.(A)
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Ezekiel 8:16
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16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; there, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, prostrating themselves to the sun toward the east.(A)
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Jeremiah 32:33
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33 They have turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they would not listen and accept correction.(A)
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Jeremiah 22:23
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23 O inhabitant of Lebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will groan[a] when pangs come upon you,
pain as of a woman in labor!
Footnotes
- 22.23 Gk Vg Syr: Heb will be pitied
Jeremiah 18:17
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17 Like the wind from the east,
I will scatter them before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.(A)
Jeremiah 10:8
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Jeremiah 2:24
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24 a wild ass at home in the wilderness
in her heat sniffing the wind!
Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
in her month they will find her.(A)
Isaiah 46:6-8
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6 Those who lavish gold from the purse
and weigh out silver in the scales—
they hire a goldsmith, who makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!(A)
7 They lift it to their shoulders; they carry it;
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries out to it, it does not answer
or save anyone from trouble.(B)
Footnotes
- 46.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Isaiah 44:9-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Absurdity of Idol Worship
9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, and so they will be put to shame.(A) 10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?(B) 11 All its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans, too, are merely human. Let them all assemble; let them stand up; they shall be terrified; they shall all be put to shame.(C)
12 The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.(D) 13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.(E) 14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.(F) 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,[a] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm[b] by the fire!” 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”(G)
18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.(H) 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”(I) 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”(J)
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Psalm 115:4-8
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4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.(A)
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
they have eyes, but they do not see.
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
they have noses, but they do not smell.
7 They have hands, but they do not feel;
they have feet, but they do not walk;
they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.(B)
Psalm 78:34-37
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
34 When he killed them, they searched for him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.(A)
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.(B)
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.(C)
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not true to his covenant.
Judges 10:8-16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 and they crushed and oppressed the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.
10 So the Israelites cried to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have served the Baals.”(A) 11 And the Lord said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you[a] from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?(B) 12 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.(C) 13 Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. 14 Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”(D) 15 And the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you, but deliver us this day!”(E) 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.(F)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 10.11 Heb lacks Did I not deliver you
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