Thematic Bible: What is not profitable


Thematic Bible




What value [is] an idol when its carver has fashioned it, a molten idol, a teacher of lies? For [he who] fashioned his creation trusts in it, [though] making mute idols! Woe to [him who] says to the wood, 'Wake up!' [And] to a lifeless stone, 'Arise!' Can he teach? Look, it is covered [with] gold and silver, and there is no breath within it.


Has a nation exchanged gods? And they [are] not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. Verse ConceptsNegotiationPolytheismExchanging Good For BadGod Bestowing GloryNo Help In Other Gods



All those who form an idol [are] nothing, and their delightful things do not profit. And their witnesses do not see or know, so they will be ashamed. Who would form a god and cast an image of [which] he cannot profit?

"But you, come near here, you children of a soothsayer, offspring [of] an adulterer and she [who] commits fornication. At whom do you make fun? At whom do you {open} [your] mouth [and] {stick out} [your] tongue? [Are] you not children of transgression, offspring of deception, who burn with lust among the oaks, under every leafy tree, who slaughter children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? read more.
Your portion [is] among [the] smooth [stones] of [the] valley; they, they [are] your lot; indeed, to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a food offering. Shall I relent concerning these [things]? You have set your bed upon a high and lofty mountain; indeed, you went up there to slaughter sacrifice. And you have set your symbol behind the door and the doorpost; for you depart from me, and you go up; you make your bed wide, and you {make a deal with} them, you have loved their bed; you have seen [their] {genitals}. And you climbed down to the king with oil, and you made your perfumes numerous, and you sent your envoys {far away}, and you {sent down deep} to Sheol. You grow weary by the greatness of your way, [but] you did not say, 'Despairing!' You found the {renewal} of your {strength}, therefore you do not grow weak. And of whom were you afraid and feared, that you deceived and did not remember me? Did you not place [it] on your heart? [Have] I not been silent, even from long ago, and [so] you do not fear me? I myself will declare your righteousness and your works, but they will not benefit you.

Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in [the] day of distress, to you [the] nations will come from the ends of [the] earth, and they will say, "Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them. Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they [are] not gods!"

For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a person give in exchange for his life?