They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
Parallel Translations
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They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
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They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
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They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 10:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 41:24 Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
- Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- Jeremiah 51:18 They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.
- Isaiah 2:18-21 The idols shall utterly pass away. Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
- Jeremiah 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They couldn’t blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 8:19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: “Isn’t Yahweh in Zion? Isn’t her King in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign idols?”
- Jonah 2:8 Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- Zechariah 13:2 It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- 1 Samuel 12:21 Don’t turn away to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.
- Isaiah 41:29 Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Jeremiah 10:11 “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’ ”
- Zephaniah 1:3-4 I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,
- Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He confirms the same thing. What he called before…
He confirms the same thing. What he called before falsehood, שקר, shikor, he calls now vanity, הבל ebel. They are vanity, he says. He had said that they were falsehood, which means, that men were grossly deceived when they sought the presence of God in dead things, now he says, that they were vanity, and also the work of illusions; but some render the last word “mockeries,” taking it in a passive sense; and hence the Chaldee interpreter renders it, “a thing worthy of ridicule and laughter.” But I prefer to take it for imposture or deception. Jacob said to his mother, “I shall be found in the eyes of my father a deceiver;” but some render the word there “a mocker.” But Jacob, on the contrary, meant that he should be found out as one of no credit, or acting in guile, as though he had said, “I shall be an impostor, and rny father will flnd out the fraud.” So also in this place, he calls idols the work of deceptions, by which men infatuated themselves. He does not then teach us here that idols deserved to be ridiculed, but he refers to the madness of those who imagined that they were gods, for he had before called them vanity and falsehood; and there is no doubt but that in these various ways he repeats and confirms the same thing.
He afterwards adds, In the time of their visitation they shall perish The pronoun “their” may be applied to idols or to the Chaldeans: when the time of visitation shall come; that is, when God shall punish the enemies of his Church, then their idols shall perish: or, when the time shall come for God to visit the idols, they shall perish. Either sense may be admitted; and indeed as to the subject in hand, there is no difference.
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The Israelites might have objected and said, “How is it then that false gods, whom men have devised for themselves, are worshipped, and are in great esteem and highly regarded? How does God suffer and overlook this?” The Israelites might have raised an objection of this kind. Therefore the Prophet answers them, They shall perish; but it shall be at the time of visitation It is an exhortation to patience, that the faithful might not despond or be weakened in their hopes, though they saw silver gods carried on men’s shoulders, though they saw wood and stone set on elevated places, and incense burnt to them and sacrifices offered to them. Though then they saw idols in such esteem, they were not yet to despair or fall away from true religion, for the time of visitation was to be looked for, when God would execute his judgment on the false gods as well as on their worshippets. We now understand why he speaks of visitation. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 10:15 They [are] vanity, [and] the work of…
Jer 10:15 They [are] vanity, [and] the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Ver. 15. They are vanity.] Vanity, in its largest extent, is properly predicated of them.
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And the work of errors.] Mere mockeries, making men to embrace vanity for verity.
In the time of their visitation.] See on Isa 46:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They are vanity, and the work of errors; either…
They are vanity, and the work of errors; either in their rise, as springing from men of corrupt minds, or the foundation of them; a metonymy of the effect; teachers and encouragers of lies, Hab 2:18; things rather to be scoffed at and derided, than adored and worshipped; and it is expressed in the plural number, to note the multiplicity of them.
In the time of their visitation they shall perish; when God shall have a controversy with them, shall come to reckon with Babylon and her idols, they and their worshippers shall be destroyed, alluding possibly to the manner of the pagan conquests, who were wont to carry away both persons and the idols of the country, and either break them to pieces, or burn them; thus were they served by, the Persians: see on Isa 46:1. This possibly may be spoken by way of encouragement to the Jews, that took offence at the Chaldean idols that were set up in their sight; that God may strengthen their patience he tells them he visits them in mercy, and their enemies in judgment; he will destroy those idols.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They are vanity,.... They are the fruit of the…
They are vanity,.... They are the fruit of the vain imagination of men; to worship them shows the vanity of the human mind; and they are vain things to trust to:
and the work of errors; of erroneous men, and which lead men into errors; and are worthy to be laughed at, as the Targum paraphrases it.
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In the time of their visitation they shall perish; or in the time that I shall visit upon them their sins, as the Targum; that is, when Babylon should be destroyed by the Medes and Persians, as Kimchi interprets it; when their idols were destroyed also; see Isa 46:1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Visitation - When God shall come to reckon with…
Visitation - When God shall come to reckon with Babylon and her idols.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Rather, “They are vanity, a work of mockery,” deserving…
Rather, “They are vanity, a work of mockery,” deserving only ridicule and contempt.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain errors--deceptions; from a Hebrew root, "to stutter"; then meaning…
errors--deceptions; from a Hebrew root, "to stutter"; then meaning "to mock."
their visitation they--When God shall punish the idol-worshippers (namely, by Cyrus), the idols themselves shall be destroyed [ROSENMULLER] (Jer 10:11).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. Work of errors — Rather, of mockery; a…
15. Work of errors — Rather, of mockery; a thing that deserves only ridicule and contempt, and brings it upon all its votaries.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. delusion] rather (with mg.) mockery, bringing scorn upon…
15. delusion] rather (with mg.) mockery, bringing scorn upon those who trust in them. The last clause of the v. refers to the fate which may be expected to befall the idols when “the day of the Lord” comes. Cp. Isa_2:12 ff.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) The work of errors.—Better, a work of mockery,…
(15) The work of errors.—Better, a work of mockery, i.e., worthy of that and of that only, the word being apparently substituted, after Jeremiah’s manner, for the technical word, not unlike in sound, which is translated “image work” in 2Ch_3:10.
In the time of their visitation.—i.e., in the time when they are visited with punishment, as in 1Pe_2:12; Isa_10:3, and Luk_19:44.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The very essence of idols is vanity; they are…
The very essence of idols is vanity; they are unreal as "a breath;" they are, not so much the work of errors as a work of mockery, i.e. not opus rise dignum, but a work which rewards the efforts bestowed upon its production by disappointment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.