Isaiah 46:6

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.

³For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax. ⁴They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it can’t move.

¹²The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. ¹³The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. ¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he burns it and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. ¹⁶He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” ¹⁸They don’t know, neither do they consider, for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see, and their hearts, that they can’t understand. ¹⁹No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”

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.

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!”

³He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

⁴When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah.

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. ⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? ⁶For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

¹⁴Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

⁵that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. ⁶Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace the same hour.”

⁷Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

⁸Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and brought accusation against the Jews. ⁹They answered Nebuchadnezzar the king, “O king, live for ever! ¹⁰You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image; ¹¹and whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. ¹²There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not respected you. They don’t serve your gods, and don’t worship the golden image which you have set up.”

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. Then these men were brought before the king. ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answered them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t serve my gods and you don’t worship the golden image which I have set up? ¹⁵Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god who will deliver you out of my hands?”