Daniel 3:1

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.

²⁰Should a man make to himself gods which yet are no gods?”

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.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

²⁹Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

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. ²¹Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? ²²It 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 out like a tent to dwell in, ²³who brings princes to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. ²⁴They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. ²⁵“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One. ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking. ²⁷Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”? ²⁸Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. ³⁰Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; ³¹but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

²⁶You see and hear that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands.

¹⁵The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

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.

²⁸So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”