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
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten …
Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, …
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that …
He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is …
They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of …
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his …
Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.
But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is …
They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.