Bible Strands
Isaiah 44:10
Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses idol makers and their supporters during a direct polemic against the practice of crafting and relying on man-made images.
The words — The Hebrew verb יָצַר (ya.Tzar) denotes the act of forming or fashioning, while הוֹעִיל (ho.'Il) literally means to confer profit or benefit.
The thread — This theme of idolatry’s uselessness recurs in Jeremiah 10:5, which describes idols as immobile scarecrows, and Habakkuk 2:18, which questions the value of a carved image. The New Testament echoes this in Acts 19:26 by declaring that man-made objects are not gods.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers recognize the logical contradiction of investing labor and resources into objects that possess no capacity to act or provide benefit.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 10:5 Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”
- Habakkuk 2:18 What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
- Acts 19:26 And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
- 1 Kings 12:28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- Isaiah 41:29 See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Daniel 3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- Daniel 3:14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up?
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.