Bible Strands
Psalms 135:15
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses Israel and the surrounding nations, marking a pivot from Yahweh’s vindication of His people to a critique of foreign worship. This declaration sits between a statement of divine compassion and a description of idolatry’s physical incapacity.
The words — עֲצַבֵּי ('atzavei) translates to "idols" or "carved images," while מַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵי אָדָם (ma'aseh yedei adam) literally means "the work of the hands of humankind." The text states that these objects are composed of silver and gold forged by human labor.
The thread — This formulation of manufactured deities appears in Psalms 115:4, Isaiah 37:19, and Jeremiah 10:3, where foreign gods are consistently reduced to wood, stone, or metal shaped by human tools.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to distinguish between the active God of Israel and the inert objects of other nations. It demands that worship be directed away from crafted materials toward the one who acts and speaks.
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
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
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.
- Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
- 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 17:29 Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
- Isaiah 44:9 All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.
- Isaiah 46:6 They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
- Deuteronomy 4:28 And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
- Isaiah 40:19 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?