Bible Verses About Idolatry

The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.

He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.

Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.

He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”

The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”

They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary.

They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have gone into captivity.

Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down—yes, they worship.

They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

“Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.

You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.

Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.

Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be no one to save you.

“But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed; there also you went up to offer sacrifice.

Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial: for you have uncovered to someone besides me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.

You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.

You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.

“Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace even of long time, and you don’t fear me?