8 And in one they are brutish and foolish, An instruction of vanities `is' the tree itself.
`Lo, all of them `are' vanity, Nought `are' their works, Wind and emptiness their molten images!'
Brutish is every man by knowledge, Put to shame is every refiner by a graven image, For false `is' his molten image. And there is no breath in them.
Because the teraphim did speak iniquity, And the diviners have seen a falsehood, And dreams of the vanity they speak, `With' vanity they give comfort, Therefore they have journeyed as a flock, They are afflicted, for there is no shepherd.
Nor do they mutter through their throat, Like them are their makers, Every one who is trusting in them.
And none doth turn `it' back unto his heart, Nor hath knowledge nor understanding to say, `Half of it I have burned in the fire, Yea, also, I have baked bread over its coals, I roast flesh and I eat, And its remnant for an abomination I make, To the stock of a tree I fall down.'
Saying to wood, `My father `art' thou!' And to a stone, `Thou hast brought me forth,' For they turned unto me the back and not the face, And in the time of their vexation, They say, `Arise Thou, and save us.'
Brutish hath been every man by knowledge, Put to shame hath been every refiner by a graven image, For false `is' his molten image, And there is no breath in them. Vanity `are' they -- work of errors, In the time of their inspection they perish.
My people at its staff asketh and its rod declareth to it, For a spirit of whoredoms hath caused to err, And they go a-whoring from under their God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 10
Commentary on Jeremiah 10 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 10
We may conjecture that the prophecy of this chapter was delivered after the first captivity, in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, when many were carried away to Babylon; for it has a double reference:-
Jer 10:1-16
The prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied of the captivity in Babylon, added warnings against idolatry and largely exposed the sottishness of idolaters, not only because the temptations in Babylon would be in danger of drawing the Jews there to idolatry, but because the afflictions in Babylon were designed to cure them of their idolatry. Thus the prophet Jeremiah here arms people against the idolatrous usages and customs of the heathen, not only for the use of those that had gone to Babylon, but of those also that staid behind, that being convinced and reclaimed, by the word of God, the rod might be prevented; and it is written for our learning. Observe here,
Jer 10:17-25
In these verses,