Verse 3

Yea all the customes and lawes of the gentiles are nothing but vanitie: They hewe downe a tree in the wood with the handes of the workeman, and fashion it with the axe.

Referenced Verses

  • Isa 44:9-9 : 9 All caruers of images are but vayne, and the carued images that they loue can do no good: they must beare recorde them selues, that seeing they can neither see nor vnderstande, they shalbe confounded. 10 Who dare then make a god, or fashion an image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Beholde, all the felowship of them must be brought to confusion, & truely all the workemasters of them are men: they shal all be gathered together, they shall stand, tremble, and be confounded one with another. 12 The smith maketh an axe, and tempereth it with hotte coales, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with all the strength of his armes, yea sometime he is fainte for very hunger, and so thirstie that he hath no more power. 13 The carpenter or image caruer taketh measure of the timber, and spreadeth foorth his line, he marketh it with some colour, he playneth it, he ruleth it, and squareth it, and maketh it after the image of a man, and according to the beautie of a man, that it may stande in the house. 14 Moreouer, he goeth out to hewe Cedar trees, he bringeth home Elmes and Okes, and taking a bolde courage, he seeketh out the best timber of the wood: he him selfe hath planted a Pine tree, whiche the rayne hath swelled, 15 Which wood serueth for men to burne: Of this he taketh and warmeth hym selfe withall, he maketh a fire of it to bakebread, and maketh also a god therof to honour it, and a grauen image to kneele before it. 16 One peece he burneth in the fire, with another he rosteth fleshe, that he may eate roste his belly full: with the thirde he warmeth him selfe, and saith, Aha, I am well warmed, I haue ben at the fire. 17 And of the residue he maketh hym a god, and grauen image for him selfe: he kneeleth before it, he worshippeth it, he prayeth vnto it, and saith, Deliuer me, for thou art my god. 18 Yet men neither consider nor vnderstande, because their eyes be stopped that they can not see, and their heartes that they can not perceaue. 19 They ponder not in their mindes, for they haue neither knowledge nor vnderstanding to thinke thus: I haue brent one peece in the fire, I haue baked bread with the coales thereof, I haue rosted fleshe withall, and eaten it: and I wyll nowe of the residue make an abhominable idoll, and fall downe before a rotten peece of wood. 20 Thus doth he but lose his labour, and his heart whiche is deceaued doth turne hym aside, so that none of them can haue a free conscience to thinke, Do not I erre?
  • Isa 45:20 : 20 Gather you and come together, drawe nigh hither you that escaped of the people: they haue no vnderstanding that set vp the stockes of their idols, and pray vnto a god that can not helpe them.
  • Jer 2:5 : 5 Thus saith the Lorde, What vnfaithfulnesse founde your fathers in me, that they went so farre away fro me, fallyng to lightnesse, and beyng so vayne?
  • Jer 10:8 : 8 They are altogether brutishe and vnwise in this one thing: wood is the teaching of vanitie.
  • Hos 8:4-6 : 4 They haue ordeyned kinges, but not through me, they haue made princes, and I knewe it not: of their siluer and golde haue they made them idols, therfore shall they be destroyed. 5 Thy Calfe O Samaria hath cast thee of, for my wrathfull indignation is gone foorth agaynst them: howe long wyll they be without innocencie? 6 For the calfe came from Israel, the workman made it, therfore can it be no God: but euen in peeces shall the calfe of Samaria be broken.
  • Hab 2:18-19 : 18 What profiteth the image? for the maker therof hath made it an image and a teacher of lyes, though he that made it trust therin when he maketh dumbe idoles. 19 Wo vnto hym that sayth to the wood, Awake: and to the dumbe stone, Rise vp, it shall teache thee: beholde it is layde ouer with gold and siluer, & there is no breath in it.
  • Matt 6:7 : 7 But when ye pray, babble not much, as the heathen do. For they thynke it wyl come to passe, that they shalbe heard, for theyr much bablinges sake.
  • Rom 1:21 : 21 Because that when they knewe God, they glorified hym not as God, neither were thankefull, but waxed full of vanities in their imaginations, and their foolishe heart was blynded.
  • 1 Pet 1:18 : 18 Forasmuch as ye knowe, howe that ye were not redeemed with corruptible thynges, as siluer and golde, from your vayne conuersation which ye receaued by the tradition of the fathers:
  • Lev 18:30 : 30 Therefore shall ye kepe myne ordinaunces, that ye commit not one of these abhominable customes whiche were committed before you, and that ye defile not your selues therein: I am the Lorde your God.
  • 1 Kgs 18:26-28 : 26 And they toke the one oxe that he dyd geue them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning to noone, saying, O Baal heare vs. But there was no voyce, nor one to aunswere: And they lept vpon the aulter that they had made. 27 And at noone Elias mocked them, and sayde: Crye lowde, for he is a God, peraduenture he is talking, or occupied in folowing vpon his enemies, or is in his iourney, or happyly he slepeth, and must be awaked with your crie. 28 And they cried lowde, and cut them selues as their maner was with kniues & launcers, till the blood folowed on the.
  • Isa 40:19-31 : 19 Shall the caruer make hym a carued image? and shall the goldesmith couer hym with golde, or cast hym into a fourme of siluer plates? 20 Moreouer, shal the image maker that the poore man which is disposed may haue some thyng to set vp also, seeke out and choose a tree that is not rotten, and carue thereout an image that moueth not? 21 Knowe ye nothyng? hearde ye neuer of it? hath it not ben preached vnto you since the beginning? haue ye not ben enfourmed of this by the foundation of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth vpon the circle of the world, whose inhabiters are in comparison of him but as grashoppers: he spreadeth out the heauens as a couering, he stretcheth them out as a tent to dwell in. 23 He bringeth princes to nothing, and the iudges of the earth as though they were not. 24 So that of them it may be sayde, they be not planted nor sowne agayne, neither their stocke rooted agayne in the earth: for assoone as he bloweth vpon them, they wither and fade away lyke the strawe in a whirle winde. 25 To whom nowe will ye liken me, and whom shall I be lyke, saith the holy one? 26 Lift vp your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those thinges which come out by so great heapes, and he calleth them al by their names: there is nothing hid from the greatnesse of his power, strength, and might. 27 Howe may then Iacob thinke, or may Israel say, My wayes are hid from the Lord, and my God knoweth not of my iudgementes? 28 Knowest thou not, or hast thou not hearde that the euerlasting God, the Lorde whiche made all the corners of the earth, is neither weerie nor fainte? and that his wysdome can not be comprehended? 29 It is he that geueth strength vnto the weerie, and power vnto the faint. 30 Children are weerie and faint, and the strongest men fall: 31 But vnto them that haue their trust in the Lorde, shall strength be increased: Egles winges shall growe vpon them, when they runne they shall not fall, and when they go they shall not be weerie.