Isaiah 2:8

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א אַרְצ֖וֹ אֱלִילִ֑ים לְמַעֲשֵׂ֤ה יָדָיו֙ יִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֔וּ לַאֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשׂ֖וּ אֶצְבְּעֹתָֽיו׃

Transliteration

And-timmālēʾ ʾarṣô ʾĕlîlîm; to-maʿăśê yādāyw yištaḥăwû, to-that which ʿāśû ʾeṣbəʿōtāyw.

Grammar Details

• *wa-timmālēʾ*: conjunction + verb, niphal imperfect consecutive, 3rd feminine singular - and is filled
• *ʾarṣô*: noun, feminine singular construct + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his land
• *ʾĕlîlîm*: noun, masculine plural - idols/worthless things
• *lə-maʿăśê*: preposition + noun, masculine singular construct - to the work of
• *yādāyw*: noun, feminine dual construct + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his hands
• *yištaḥăwû*: verb, hishtaphel imperfect, 3rd masculine plural - they bow down/worship
• *la-ʾăšer*: preposition + relative pronoun - to that which
• *ʿāśû*: verb, qal perfect, 3rd common plural - made/created
• *ʾeṣbəʿōtāyw*: noun, feminine plural construct + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his fingers

Word Meanings

• *ʾĕlîlîm*: idols/worthless things/nothings/vanities
• *maʿăśê yādāyw*: work of his hands/handiwork/human creation
• *yištaḥăwû*: they bow down/prostrate themselves/worship
• *ʾeṣbəʿōtāyw*: his fingers/what he has crafted

Referenced Verses

• Ps 115:4-8 : 4 Their idols are made of silver and gold– they are man-made. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see, 6 ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell, 7 hands, but cannot touch, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot even clear their throats. 8 Those who make them will end up like them, as will everyone who trusts in them.
• Isa 37:19 : 19 They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.
• Jer 2:28 : 28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them save you when you are in trouble. The sad fact is that you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.
• Jer 11:13 : 13 This is in spite of the fact that the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’
• Ezek 16:23-25 : 23 “‘After all of your evil–“Woe! Woe to you!” declares the Sovereign LORD– 24 you built yourself a chamber and put up a pavilion in every public square. 25 At the head of every street you erected your pavilion and you disgraced your beauty when you spread your legs to every passerby and multiplied your promiscuity.
• Hos 8:6 : 6 That idol was made by a workman– it is not God! The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
• Hos 12:11 : 11 Is there idolatry in Gilead? Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!
• Hos 13:2 : 2 Even now they persist in sin! They make metal images for themselves, idols that they skillfully fashion from their own silver; all of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen! There is a saying about them:“Those who sacrifice to the calf idol are calf kissers!”
• Hos 14:3 : 3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not ride warhorses. We will never again say,‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made. For only you will show compassion to Orphan Israel!”
• Acts 17:16 : 16 Paul at Athens While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because he saw the city was full of idols.
• Rev 9:20 : 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood– idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.
• Isa 44:15-20 : 15 A man uses it to make a fire; he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire– over that half he cooks meat; he roasts a meal and fills himself. Yes, he warms himself and says,‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’ 17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it, saying,‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’ 18 They do not comprehend or understand, for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern. 19 No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:‘I burned half of it in the fire– yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’ 20 He feeds on ashes; his deceived mind misleads him. He cannot rescue himself, nor does he say,‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’
• Isa 57:5 : 5 you who inflame your lusts among the oaks and under every green tree, who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs.
• Isa 10:10-11 : 10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s. 11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.”
• Isa 17:8 : 8 They will no longer trust in the altars their hands made, or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made.
• Deut 4:28 : 28 There you will worship gods made by human hands– wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
• 2 Chr 27:2 : 2 He did what the LORD approved, just as his father Uzziah had done.(He did not, however, have the audacity to enter the temple.) Yet the people were still sinning.
• 2 Chr 28:2-4 : 2 He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel; he also made images of the Baals. 3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the LORD drove out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
• 2 Chr 28:23-25 : 23 He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus whom he thought had defeated him. He reasoned,“Since the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.” But they caused him and all Israel to stumble. 24 Ahaz gathered the items in God’s temple and removed them. He shut the doors of the LORD’s temple and erected altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. 25 In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the LORD God of his ancestors.
• 2 Chr 33:3-7 : 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the LORD’s temple, about which the LORD had said,“Jerusalem will be my permanent home.” 5 In the two courtyards of the LORD’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky. 6 He passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the LORD and angered him. 7 He put an idolatrous image he had made in God’s temple, about which God had said to David and to his son Solomon,“This temple in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will be my permanent home.