Jeremiah 10

The Living God and the Wooden Gods

Jeremiah mocks the idols of the nations as lifeless things made by craftsmen, sets the Maker of heaven and earth against them, and then turns to the coming exile and a prayer to be corrected, not destroyed.

The chapter gives no date. The Bible Dictionary places chapters 7–20 among the prophecies under Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.) Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

The chapter has no date. The Bible Dictionary groups chapters 7–20 under King Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.), and the Church's chapter heading gives its subject: “Learn not the way of…

The chapter has no date. The Bible Dictionary groups chapters 7–20 under King Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.), and the Church's chapter heading gives its subject: “Learn not the way of other nations—Their gods are idols and molten images—The Lord is the true and living God.” It follows chapter 9, which ends by saying that the nations around Judah “are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jer. 9:26). Chapter 10 begins by addressing that same “house of Israel.”

The first half (verses 1–16) is a short sermon in verse against idols. It is addressed to the “house of Israel,” not to the nations; in Jeremiah's day “idolatry, hill-worship, and heathen religious practices” were “rampant among his people.” Verses 6–7 and 10 turn from the idols to the Lord. Verse 11 is the one verse in the book written in Aramaic. Verses 12–16 appear again, almost word for word, in Jer. 51:15–19.

The second half (verses 17–25) moves from argument to events. A speaker announces exile, a voice mourns it, and a prayer asks that the correction be just and that the nations that devoured Jacob be held to account.

The thread through the chapter

The chapter asks who made what. In verses 1–9 people make the gods: a workman cuts a tree, decorates it, and nails it in place so that it will not fall.

The chapter asks who made what. In verses 1–9 people make the gods: a workman cuts a tree, decorates it, and nails it in place so that it will not fall. In verses 10–16 the Lord is the one who “hath made the earth,” “established the world,” and “stretched out the heavens.” The word that sorts the two sides is “brutish.” It describes the idol-makers' teaching (verse 8) and “every man” without knowledge of God (verse 14), and then, at the turn into the second half, the shepherds of Israel: “the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD” (verse 21).

On one reading, the second half is the sermon's application: the shepherds' failure to seek the Lord (verse 21) points back to the idol-makers' folly in verse 14. Ps. 115:8 says of idol-makers, “They that make them are like unto them.” The prayer of verses 23–24 then admits that “the way of man is not in himself” and asks to be corrected by the Lord, not destroyed.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–5

Do not learn the way of the nations

In plain words

Hear what the Lord says to you, house of Israel: do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. Their customs are empty. Someone cuts a tree in the forest, a workman shapes it with an axe, they cover it with silver and gold, and they fasten it with hammer and nails so it won't fall over. It stands stiff and cannot speak. It has to be carried because it cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm, and they can do no good.

1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Context #

Signs of heaven

“The signs of heaven” are probably unusual events in the sky that the nations took as omens, and Jeremiah is warning Judah not to share their fear.

“The signs of heaven” are probably unusual events in the sky that the nations took as omens, and Jeremiah is warning Judah not to share their fear. One reading lists them as “eclipses of the sun and moon, comets, and unusual conjunctions of the stars,” regarded as “precursors of extraordinary and disastrous events.” The nations were “dismayed” by them “because in the stars they adored supernatural powers.” The verse itself does not list the signs.

The warning has a history. Under Manasseh, Judah had adopted “the worship of the heavenly planets in accordance with the dictates of the Assyro-Babylonian religion.” Moses had already warned Israel not to be “driven to worship” the sun, the moon, and the stars, which the Lord “hath divided unto all nations” (Deut. 4:19). Jeremiah 10:2 repeats that warning.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

Imagery #

A god cut from a tree

The argument of verses 3–5 is the order of events: a workman cuts the tree, decorates it, and nails it down “that it move not,” and then people look to it for help.

The argument of verses 3–5 is the order of events: a workman cuts the tree, decorates it, and nails it down “that it move not,” and then people look to it for help. The argument shows “the stupidity and sheer illogic of worshiping an idol”: people take wood and metal, shape them “at their own will,” make them into an idol “by the work of their own hands,” and then “suddenly expect the idol to be filled with supernatural power.”

Isaiah says the same: “The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold” (Isa. 40:19), and the man who made it “maketh a god, even his graven image” and prays to it, “Deliver me; for thou art my god” (Isa. 44:17). The Church's Guide to the Scriptures defines idolatry as “the worship of idols or an excessive attachment or devotion to anything.” Jeremiah's target is the first sense, a carved object.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Idolatry”, Guide to the Scriptures.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

Language #

Upright as the palm tree

The comparison in verse 5 may be to a scarecrow rather than a palm. The Hebrew word (tomer) usually means “palm-tree,” and the lexicon lists this verse separately, translating it…

The comparison in verse 5 may be to a scarecrow rather than a palm. The Hebrew word (tomer) usually means “palm-tree,” and the lexicon lists this verse separately, translating it “like a post (i.e. a scare-crow...) in a cucumber field (simile of idol).” The KJV took the usual sense of the word; the lexicon reads the whole phrase as a simile for something that stands stiff in a field and does nothing. That is the lexicon's reading of a phrase the KJV renders differently, not a certain one.

Either way the point is the same as the rest of the verse: the image stands upright and does not speak, and the people who fear it have been frightened by a post in a field.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

Related Scriptures #

Borne, because they cannot go

The idols must be carried, and other scripture makes the same observation.

The idols must be carried, and other scripture makes the same observation. Isaiah describes it: “They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place”; “one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble” (Isa. 46:7, the passage the Church edition's footnote gives here).

Ps. 115:4–8 lists what an idol cannot do, “They have mouths, but they speak not,” and then says what becomes of those who make and trust it: “They that make them are like unto them.” Jeremiah's later verses show what that means for Judah's leaders (verse 21).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 6–10

There is none like you

In plain words

There is no one like you, Lord. You are great, and your name is great in power. Who would not fear you, King of the nations? It is your right. Among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you. They are all senseless and foolish, taught by a piece of wood. Beaten silver comes from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, work of the craftsman and the goldsmith, dressed in blue and purple, all made by skilled workers. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. The earth shakes at his anger, and the nations cannot stand against his wrath.

6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

Context #

Silver from Tarshish

The silver for these idols was imported from a distant place, which is why the verse names its source.

The silver for these idols was imported from a distant place, which is why the verse names its source. Tarshish was “probably Tartessus in Spain,” and “ships of Tarshish” was the name given to the largest ships, “suitable for long voyages.” Jeremiah says the idol is expensive, imported, and dressed in “blue and purple,” and it is still “the work of cunning men.”

The Church edition's footnote at “cunning men” sends the reader to D&C 124:84, where the Lord says of a man in Joseph Smith's day that “he setteth up a golden calf for the worship of my people.” The Lord uses the same image in a modern revelation.

Sources: “Tarshish”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

Related Scriptures #

The living God

“The living God” is set against the dead idols of verses 5 and 8 (and the “no breath in them” of verse 14).

“The living God” is set against the dead idols of verses 5 and 8 (and the “no breath in them” of verse 14). The idols are lifeless; the Lord is called “true,” “living,” and “an everlasting king.” The Church edition's footnotes link these titles to Restoration scripture: “true God” to Josh. 22:34 and D&C 76:1, where the Lord “is God, and beside him there is no Savior,” and “living God” to JS—H 1:17, Joseph Smith's account of seeing two Personages, one of whom presents the other as “My Beloved Son.”

Verse 7 prepares for this with “O King of nations.” One reading understands the question “Who would not fear thee?” as saying that “every one must fear Thee,” because the Lord rules every nation, not Israel alone.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Verse 11

What to say to the nations (in Aramaic)

In plain words

“This is what you shall say to them: ‘The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will vanish from the earth and from under these heavens.’”

11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

Language #

The one verse in Aramaic

Verse 11 is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. The Bible Dictionary lists it among the few portions of the Old Testament in Aramaic, “an official language of the Persian Empire,…

Verse 11 is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. The Bible Dictionary lists it among the few portions of the Old Testament in Aramaic, “an official language of the Persian Empire, spoken widely throughout the Near East.” The verse is the only Aramaic in Jeremiah.

Why it is here is a question the text does not answer. One reading takes it as a ready answer for Judeans to give people they could speak to only in the nations' language: “Thus shall ye say unto them.” The same reading argues that the verse is not a later insertion, because “no copyist would have interpolated a Chaldee verse into the Hebrew text,” and because it fits the thought of verse 10. That is one commentator's judgment, not settled.

Sources: “Aramaic”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Verses 12–16

The Maker of all things

In plain words

He made the earth by his power, set the world in place by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding. When he speaks, the waters in the sky roar. He brings clouds up from the ends of the earth, makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses. Every person is senseless and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol, for the metal image is a lie, and there is no breath in it. They are empty, a work to be mocked. When they are called to account, they will perish. Jacob's portion is not like these. He formed everything, and Israel is the tribe he claims as his own. The Lord of hosts is his name.

12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

Witness of Christ #

The Maker of the earth

Verses 12–16 describe the Maker whom the idols imitate, and the passage stands twice in the book, in Jer. 51:15–19, where it is nearly word for word the same.

Verses 12–16 describe the Maker whom the idols imitate, and the passage stands twice in the book, in Jer. 51:15–19, where it is nearly word for word the same. Verse 12 names three tools of creation: power, wisdom, and “discretion,” and verse 13 gives the Lord's voice over the waters, clouds, lightning, and wind.

Restoration scripture says who made the worlds. The vision of the three degrees of glory testifies of the Savior that “by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created” (D&C 76:24). The Lord tells Moses, “by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten” (Moses 1:33), and John writes that “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Idols are things that were made; the Lord of verse 12 is the one who made.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

Related Scriptures #

The portion of Jacob

“Portion” means an allotment, and verse 16 contrasts what the nations received with what Israel received.

“Portion” means an allotment, and verse 16 contrasts what the nations received with what Israel received. Moses said the Lord had “divided” the sun, moon, and stars “unto all nations,” but that He took Israel out of Egypt “to be unto him a people of inheritance” (Deut. 4:19–20). In Deut. 32:9, “the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance”.

Jeremiah uses the same vocabulary of inheritance. The nations were given lifeless things to follow, and Jacob's portion is “the former of all things.” The phrase also reads the other way: the Lord is Jacob's portion, and Israel is “the rod of his inheritance.” Each side belongs to the other.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 17–22

Pack up, and the sound of the lament

In plain words

“Gather up your bundle from the ground, you who live under siege. This is what the Lord says: I am about to hurl out the people of the land this time, and I will squeeze them so that they are found.” A voice answers: “Woe to me because of my injury! My wound is grievous. But I said, This is my sickness, and I must bear it. My tent is destroyed and all its cords are snapped. My children have left me, and they are gone. No one is left to pitch my tent again or hang its curtains. The shepherds have become senseless; they have not sought the Lord, so they have not prospered, and their whole flock is scattered. Listen, a report is coming, a great noise from the north, to turn the cities of Judah into a ruin, a haunt of jackals.”

17 Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

Context #

Pack up and leave

Verse 17 tells the people to pack for exile, and verse 18 says the exile is not like earlier invasions.

Verse 17 tells the people to pack for exile, and verse 18 says the exile is not like earlier invasions. One reading takes the “wares” as a bundle to carry, “something of the nature of a current popular phrase” like “pack up,” addressed to the one “that sittest in the siege,” which here means the whole land, not only Jerusalem.

“At this once” is read as “this time”: earlier attacks on Judah ended with plunder and tribute, but this time the people would be hurled out, “hemmed in” by a siege so that “none shall be able to escape.” The end of verse 18 is explained in several ways, and this is one commentator's judgment about it.

18 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

Context #

Who is speaking in verses 19–20

The text does not say who mourns in verses 19–20, and the best clue is Jeremiah's own earlier words.

The text does not say who mourns in verses 19–20, and the best clue is Jeremiah's own earlier words. In chapter 4 he cries, “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart,” and then, “suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment” (Jer. 4:19–20). The Church edition links the broken tent of verse 20 to that passage.

One reading hears the prophet speaking “in the name of the congregation, as he did in the like passage” in chapter 4: the grief of the people, in Jeremiah's mouth. The tent image fits that: its cords are broken, its children gone, and no one is left to pitch it again. Whether the voice is the prophet's, the land's, or the people's, the grief is for a ruin already coming.

20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

Language #

Brutish shepherds

“Pastors” in the KJV means shepherds, the leaders of the people, and verse 21 says they failed in the same way the idol-makers did.

“Pastors” in the KJV means shepherds, the leaders of the people, and verse 21 says they failed in the same way the idol-makers did. The word “brutish” is the same in English as in verses 8 and 14, and the chain is in the text: the idol-makers are “brutish and foolish,” “every man is brutish in his knowledge,” and now the leaders “are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD.” The Church edition's footnote sends “pastors” to “Shepherd” in the Topical Guide.

The result is the scattering of “their flocks.” Jeremiah says it directly in Jer. 23:1: “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” That chapter, on rulers and the promised King, develops what is only a clause here.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

Verses 23–25

A prayer to be corrected, not destroyed

In plain words

“Lord, I know that a person's way is not his own. It is not for someone walking to direct his own steps. Correct me, Lord, but in justice, not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing. Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you and on the families that do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and finished him and laid waste his home.”

23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

Related Scriptures #

Pour out thy fury

The prayer against the nations is not the last word on them. The verse stands almost word for word in Ps. 79:6–7, a psalm that mourns a Jerusalem laid “on heaps” (Ps. 79:1).

The prayer against the nations is not the last word on them. The verse stands almost word for word in Ps. 79:6–7, a psalm that mourns a Jerusalem laid “on heaps” (Ps. 79:1). In Jeremiah's own book the Lord says of the nations that harmed Judah, “after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them,” and that if they “diligently learn the ways of my people… then shall they be built in the midst of my people” (Jer. 12:15–16).

Judah is not exempt from judgment either: the nations are “uncircumcised,” and “all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jer. 9:26).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 10

The chapter's contrast is between things that are made and the One who made them. Verses 10 and 12 give the Lord's titles: “the true God,” “the living God,” “an everlasting king,” the maker of the earth, the world, and the heavens. The “LORD” of verse 10 stands for the name Jehovah, and “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ.” Restoration scripture says that the worlds were created “by him, and through him, and of him” (D&C 76:24) and “by the Son” (Moses 1:33), so, on the Latter-day Saint reading, these verses describe the Savior, of whom it is said that “beside him there is no Savior” (D&C 76:1). The Church edition ties “living God” to the vision in which one Personage presents the other as “My Beloved Son” (JS—H 1:17). Against lifeless images that must be carried, the God of Jeremiah 10 is a living person who speaks, and whose voice the heavens answer (verse 13).

Worth exploring next

Read Isa. 44:9–20 and Ps. 115 for the same argument against idols at greater length, and Jer. 51:15–19 for the repeated hymn of creation. Verse 21's shepherds return in Jer. 23:1–8; the Lord's promise to the nations whose prayer-curse appears in verse 25 is in Jer. 12:14–17.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
“Tarshish”, Bible Dictionary.
“Idolatry”, Guide to the Scriptures.
“Aramaic”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

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