Judges 17:3
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3 Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.”(A)
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Exodus 20:4
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4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.(A)
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Leviticus 19:4
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4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.(A)
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Exodus 20:23
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23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.(A)
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John 16:2
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2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.(A)
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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)
Jeremiah 10:8
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Jeremiah 10:3-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 For the customs of the peoples are false:
a tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan;(A)
4 they deck it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammers and nails
so that it cannot move.(B)
5 Their idols[a] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
nor is it in them to do good.(C)
Footnotes
- 10.5 Heb They
Isaiah 66:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human,
whoever sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog’s neck,
whoever presents a grain offering like one who offers pig’s blood,
whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense like one who blesses an idol.
Just as these have chosen their own ways
and in their abominations they take delight,(A)
Isaiah 44:9-20
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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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Isaiah 40:18-25
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18 To whom, then, will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?(A)
19 An idol? A workman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.(B)
20 As a gift one chooses mulberry wood[a]
—wood that will not rot—
then seeks out a skilled artisan
to set up an image that will not topple.(C)
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?(D)
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to live in,(E)
23 who brings princes to naught
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.(F)
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.(G)
25 To whom, then, will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.(H)
Footnotes
- 40.20 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Psalm 115:4-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Judges 18:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 Then they said to him, “Inquire of God that we may know whether the mission we are undertaking will succeed.”(A)
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Judges 17:13
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13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me because the Levite has become my priest.”
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Deuteronomy 12:3
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3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles[a] with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.(A)
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- 12.3 Or Asherahs
Exodus 34:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 “You shall not make cast idols.(A)
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