Isaiah 46:7

Hebrew Bible

5 To whom can you compare and liken me? Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared! 6 Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it. 7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it; they put it in its place and it just stands there; it does not move from its place. Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply; it does not deliver him from his distress. 8 Remember this, so you can be brave. Think about it, you rebels! 9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity. Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,

Letter of Jeremiah 1:26

Deuterocanon

24 As for the gold that they wear for beauty—it will not shine unless someone wipes off the tarnish; for even when they were being cast, they did not feel it. 25 They are bought without regard to cost, but there is no breath in them. 26 Having no feet, they are carried on the shoulders of others, revealing to humankind their worthlessness. And those who serve them are put to shame 27 because, if any of these gods falls to the ground, they themselves must pick it up. If anyone sets it upright, it cannot move itself; and if it is tipped over, it cannot straighten itself. Gifts are placed before them just as before the dead. 28 The priests sell the sacrifices that are offered to these gods and use the money themselves. Likewise their wives preserve some of the meat with salt, but give none to the poor or helpless.

 Notes and References

"... Although this text is ostensibly composed before the deportation, in reality it is a reworking and reapplication of the earlier oracles of Jeremiah, especially those dealing with the dangers of idolatry. The epistle draws particularly on the denunciation of idols found in Jeremiah 10:1–16 (compare also, e.g., Jeremiah 44:1–30), restating repeatedly its message that, despite their outward beautifying with gold and silver and purple clothing (verses 3, 7, 10, 11, 23, 29, 38, 50, 54, 56, 69–71; compare Jeremiah 10:4, 9), they are completely useless because they are made with human hands (verses 7, 23, 45, 50; compare Jeremiah 10:3–4, 9, 14). They are, therefore, mere blocks of wood that cannot speak and walk as even humans do (verse 26; compare Jeremiah 10:4–5, 14). Although this section of Jeremiah is alluded to rather than formally cited, direct dependence on and close engagement with it is indicated by a number of specific verbal parallels. These include the terms (“purple”; verses 11, 71; compare Jeremiah 10:9) and (“goldsmiths”; verse 45; compare Jeremiah 10:9, 14); the claim that there is “no breath” in the idols (verse 24; compare Jeremiah 10:14); and the shared motif of the display of signs in the heavens for the nations (verse 66; compare Jeremiah 10:2). Early Jewish exegesis is largely motivated by the presence of a real or perceived problem or gap in the underlying scriptural text, and Jeremiah–16 would have raised questions for later readers ..."

Docherty, Susan "The Epistle of Jeremiah" in Oegema, Gerbern S. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha (pp. 397-409) Oxford University Press, 2021

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