Judges 17:3

⁴“‘Don’t turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.

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:

²³You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me.

¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest.”

⁹Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. ¹⁰Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? ¹¹Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. 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?” ²⁰He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

²They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

⁵They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.”