'Idols' in the Bible

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.

They stooped over, they have bowed down together;They could not rescue the burden [of their own idols],But have themselves gone into captivity.

“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it [I refrain and do not completely destroy you];For how can My Name be defiled and profaned [as it would if My chosen people were completely destroyed]?And I will not give My glory to another [by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over you].

All of you, assemble and listen!Who among the idols has declared these things?The Lord loves him;he will accomplish His will against Babylon,and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?

Among the smooth stones of the stream are the idols you love; they, they are the object of your devotion. You pour out liquid offerings to them, you make an offering. Because of these things I will seek vengeance.

"I will denounce your righteousness and your works, for your collections of idols will not benefit you.

When you cry out,let your collection of idols deliver you!The wind will carry all of them off,a breath will take them away.But whoever takes refuge in Mewill inherit the landand possess My holy mountain.

The people who continually provoke Me to My face,Sacrificing [to idols] in gardens and making offerings with incense on bricks [instead of at the designated altar];

“He who kills an ox [for pagan sacrifice] is [as guilty] as one who kills a man;He who sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck;He who offers a grain offering, as one who offers swine’s blood;He who offers incense, as one who blesses an idol.Such people have chosen their own ways,And their soul delights in their repulsive acts;

“Those who [vainly attempt to] sanctify and cleanse themselves to go to the gardens [to sacrifice to idols],Following after one in the center,Who eat swine’s flesh, detestable things and mice,Will come to an end together,” says the Lord.

I will speak My judgments against them for all the wickedness of those who have abandoned (rejected) Me, offered sacrifices or burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the [idolatrous] works of their own hands.

This is what the Lord says:What fault did your fathers find in Methat they went so far from Me,followed worthless idols,and became worthless themselves?

The priests quit asking, “Where is the Lord?”The experts in the law no longer knew Me,and the rulers rebelled against Me.The prophets prophesied by Baaland followed useless idols.

Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?(But they were not gods!)Yet My people have exchanged their Gloryfor useless idols.

“[Cease your mad running after idols to]Keep your feet from becoming bareAnd your throat from becoming dry;But you said, ‘It is hopeless!For I have loved strangers and foreign gods,And I will walk after them.’

“But where are your godsWhich you made for yourself?Let them get up, if they can save youIn the time of your trouble!For [as many as] the number of your citiesAre your gods, O Judah. [Why do not your many man-made idols run to help you?]

And I saw [that even though Judah knew] that for all the acts of adultery (idolatry) of faithless Israel, I [the Lord] had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid; but she went and was a prostitute also [following after idols].

Because of the thoughtlessness of Israel’s prostitution [her immorality mattered little to her], she desecrated the land and committed adultery with [idols of] stones and trees.

If you return, Israel—this is the Lord’s declaration—you will return to Me,if you remove your detestable idolsfrom My presenceand do not waver,

"For the people of Judah have done evil in my eyes," declares the LORD. "They have put their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name in order to defile it.

Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a far away land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?

Oh that I had in the wildernessA lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men,That I might leave my peopleAnd go away from them!For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the Lord],[They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].

Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,their idols cannot speak.They must be carried because they cannot walk.Do not fear them for they can do no harm—and they cannot do any good.

They are both stupid and foolish,instructed by worthless idolsmade of wood!

Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. The idols are the work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith. Their clothing is violet and purple. The idols are all the work of skilled craftsmen.

Everyone is stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false. There is no life in them.

Judah, you have as many gods as you have towns, and you have set up as many altars to the shameful idols as there are streets in Jerusalem. You burn incense to Baal on these altars.

“I have seen your vile and detestable acts,Even your adulteries and your lustful neighings [after idols],And the lewdness of your prostitutionOn the hills in the fields.Woe (judgment is coming) to you, O Jerusalem!How long will you remain unclean [by ignoring My precepts]?”

Then the Lord said to me, “The [counterfeit] prophets are prophesying lies in My Name. I have neither sent them nor authorized them nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you made-up visions [pretending to call forth responses from handmade gods], a worthless divination and the deceit of their own mind.

Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?Or can the skies alone give showers?Are You not the Lord our God?We therefore put our hope in You,for You have done all these things.

I will first repay them double for their guilt and sin because they have polluted My land. They have filled My inheritance with the lifelessness of their detestable and abhorrent idols.”

Lord, my strength and my stronghold,my refuge in a time of distress,the nations will come to Youfrom the ends of the earth, and they will say,“Our fathers inherited only lies,worthless idols of no benefit at all.”

Yet My people have forgotten Me.They burn incense to false idolsthat make them stumble in their wayson the ancient roadsand walk on new paths, not the highway.

Don't follow other gods to serve and worship them. Don't provoke me with the idols you make with your hands, and I won't bring disaster on you.'

But you didn't listen to me," declares the LORD, "so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in My sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have been provoking Me to anger by the [idols that are the] work of their hands,” says the Lord.

They put their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name and defiled it.

He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn their idols and take them captive. He will wrap himself with the land of Egypt like a shepherd wraps himself with a garment, and then he will leave from there in peace.

Why do you [deliberately] provoke Me to anger with the works (idols) of your hands, burning sacrifices and incense to [make-believe] gods in the land of Egypt, where you [of your own accord] have come to live [as temporary residents], that you might be cut off and become a curse and a disgrace [an object of taunts] among all the nations of the earth?

Because you have burned sacrifices [to idols] and because you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law and in His statutes and in His testimonies, therefore this tragedy has fallen on you, as it has this day.”

Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

Everyone is stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his own idols, for his images are false, and there is no life in them.

Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

So as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

"As for his beautiful ornament, he set it up in majesty, but they made detestable images and loathsome idols. Therefore, I'll give them something loathsome

So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

And [when] they come there, then they will remove all of its vile idols and all of its detestable things from it.

Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?

Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:

“But you trusted in and relied on your beauty and prostituted yourself [in idolatry and its debauched rituals] because of your fame, and you poured out your immoralities on every [willing] passer-by and your beauty was his [as you worshiped the idols of the Gentile nations].

Also My bread which I gave you, [made from the] fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you even offered it before idols [no better than cow dung] as a sweet and soothing aroma; so it happened,” says the Lord God.

"Then you took your sons and daughters whom you bore for me and sacrificed them for your idols to eat. As though your prostitutions were an insignificant thing,

you also slaughtered my sons and offered them to idols, incinerating them in fire.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,

(though the father did not do any of these things), that is, the son even eats [the food set before idols] at the mountain shrines, and defiles his neighbor’s wife,

Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination,

That hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbour's wife,

Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

and I pronounced them unclean because of their offerings [to their idols], in that they made all their firstborn pass through the fire [as pagan sacrifices], so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.

What comes into your mind will never happen, when you say, ‘We will be like the [pagan] nations, like the tribes of the [Gentile] countries, serving [idols made of] wood and stone.’

As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

For the king of Babylon stands at the split in the road, at the fork of the two roads, to practice divination: he shakes the arrows, consults the idols, and observes the liver.

Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.

In you are men who slander for the purpose of shedding blood, and in your presence they have eaten [food offered to idols] at the mountain shrines; in your midst they have committed acts of lewdness.

Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.

"She defiled herself with all their idols. She never abandoned the immorality that she practiced in Egypt during her youth, where they laid down with her and fondled her virgin breasts, lavishing her with all kinds of favors.

I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.

And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?

“Thus says the Lord God, ‘Because they say to you, “You [O land] are a devourer of people and have bereaved your nation of children,”

Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

"Son of Man," the Lord GOD told me, "This is where my throne is, where I place the soles of my feet, and where I will live among the Israelis forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name neither they nor their kings by their unfaithfulness, by the lifeless idols of their kings on their funeral mounds,

But now let them send their unfaithfulness that is, the lifeless idols of their kings far away from me, and I will live among them forever."

And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.

And also their gods with their idols [and] with the {precious vessels}, silver and gold he will take to Egypt into captivity, and [for] years {he will leave the king of the north alone}.