Acts 17:29

²⁵“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

⁴“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁵“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same? ⁶Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. ⁵They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. ⁶They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell. ⁷They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat. ⁸Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.

¹⁹Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it. ²⁰But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”

⁴They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it can’t move. ⁵They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak. They must be carried, because they can’t move. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.” ⁶There is no one like you, LORD. You are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷Who shouldn’t fear you, King of the nations? For it belongs to you. Because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is no one like you. ⁸But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood. ⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the engraver and of the hands of the goldsmith. Their clothing is blue and purple. They are all the work of skillful men. ¹⁰But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.

²⁰For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. ²¹Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, ²³and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things.

²⁰Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? ¹³Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor? ¹⁴Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? ¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. ¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. ¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity. ¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? ¹⁹A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. ²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.

⁴He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”