Bible Strands
Jeremiah 16:20
Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to the nations, contrasting their inherited worthless idols with His impending demonstration of power and might. The words — אֱלֹהִ֑ים ('E.lo.Him) = gods and לֹ֥א (lo') = not, which frame the rhetorical question and its definitive denial. The thread — The impossibility of human-made divinity appears in Psalms 115:4 and Isaiah 37:19, while Galatians 4:8 notes the former slavery to entities that are not gods by nature. Why it lands — It demands the reader abandon reliance on crafted substitutes and recognize Yahweh alone as the only true God.
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
Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
Cross-references
- Psalms 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- Isaiah 37:19 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
- Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
- Psalms 135:14 For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.
- Isaiah 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
- Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
- Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
- 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.
- Galatians 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!