Bible Strands
Jeremiah 10:15
They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah addresses Judah regarding the futility of idolatry, contrasting lifeless crafted images with the living Creator of all things.
The words — The Hebrew term הֶ֣בֶל (hevel) denotes futility or vapor, paired with מַעֲשֵׂה תַעְתּוּעִים (ma'aseh ta'atu'im), literally "a work of mockery."
The thread — Jeremiah 51:18 repeats this exact declaration verbatim, while Isaiah 41:24 and Jeremiah 14:22 address the futility of idols without claiming their destruction.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that crafted objects possess no power to save and will face destruction, contrasting them with the Maker who holds Israel as His inheritance.
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
They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 41:24 Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
- Jeremiah 14:22 Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.
- Jeremiah 51:18 They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- Isaiah 2:18 and the idols will vanish completely.
- Jeremiah 8:12 Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Jeremiah 8:19 Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
- Jonah 2:8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- Zechariah 13:2 And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- 1 Samuel 12:21 Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.