Jeremiah 10:8
But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Study Note
Study Note
The dismissal of idol-worshippers as 'altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities' participates in the Hebrew Bible's persistent polemic that idolatry is not merely wrong but cognitively degrading — it 'brutalises' its practitioners, reducing them to the level of the wood they worship. The term 'brutish' (ba'ar, to be like cattle) echoes Psalm 94:8 and 73:22, where the same word describes moral-spiritual stupidity — a failure not of intelligence but of the ordered perception that comes from knowing the living God. Jeremiah's polemic is embedded within one of the most cosmologically rich sections of his book (10:1-16), which contrasts the God who made heavens and earth with idols that cannot stand upright or speak — a contrast that Isaiah 44-46 and Psalm 115 develop at length. Paul's Romans 1:21-23 account of Gentile idolatry as 'becoming vain in their imaginations' and 'their foolish heart darkened' applies this prophetic diagnosis to the Greco-Roman world.
Other Translations
But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
And in one they are brutish and foolish, An instruction of vanities <FI>is<Fi> the tree itself.
But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood.
Cross References
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it …
Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have …
For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they …
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is …
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.
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused …