Jeremiah 10:14
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.
Study Note
Study Note
The declaration that 'every man is brutish in his knowledge' and 'every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them' forms part of Jeremiah's sustained polemic against idolatry in chapters 10-11. The word 'brutish' (ba'ar, beast-like, stupid) frames idol-worship as a cognitive failure — an abandonment of the rational capacity that distinguishes humans from animals — rather than merely a moral or religious transgression. The argument that idols lack 'breath' (nishmat) points to Genesis 2:7, where God breathes life into Adam, implying only the living God can impart what the lifeless idol lacks. Paul draws on this tradition in Romans 1:22-23 ('professing themselves to be wise, they became fools') when diagnosing Gentile idolatry.
Other Translations
Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Brutish is every man by knowledge, Put to shame is every refiner by a graven image, For false <FI>is<Fi> his molten image. And there is no breath in them.
Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.
Cross References
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, …
A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten …