John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 10:14

"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." — Jeremiah 10:14 (ASV)

Some offer overly refined explanations for the beginning of this verse—that their own subtlety or wisdom, which they claim for themselves, makes men foolish, according to what Paul says, that men become futile in their thinking when they form an idea of God according to their own imagination (Romans 1:21).

But the Prophet speaks more plainly, for he says that all artisans were foolish. The word 'knowledge' here is not to be taken as knowledge of truth, but as the skill of artisans—whether carpenters, blacksmiths, or those who melted, engraved, or formed gods of wood, stone, and silver, as we can learn from the second part of the verse.

There is no difficulty in understanding what is meant if we carefully consider the Prophet's words. He expresses the same idea in two ways: foolish, he says, are all our artisans; then he specifies one type, every founder or melter, and so on. Thus, we see that the Prophet does not use the word 'knowledge' in its strict sense but extends it to skill in craftsmanship.

But when he says that the artisans were foolish, he undoubtedly connects with them all the worshippers of false gods. He condemns their skill, as they applied whatever expertise and knowledge they had to such a futile purpose. Behold, he says, the worker in gold, and every other artisan, think they are very ingenious when they elegantly form an idol; they spend all their ingenuity on such a futile thing. What is this but folly?

But they think that they make a god with their own hands, yet they cannot change the nature of gold and silver. It is only the form that they add, but this form contains no life. Therefore, he adds, There is no spirit in them. He had said before that those who formed the graven image would be ashamed, or convicted of folly, for he had called them foolish and brutish.

Now, בער, bor, in Hiphil, means 'to be foolish,' but the noun means 'a brute animal.' Therefore, he reproachfully compares these illustrious artisans, who gained renown by the elegant forms they gave to their gods, to donkeys, oxen, and other brute animals. Some render נסך, nusak, as “covering,” but it signifies, I have no doubt, a molten image, for he repeats what he had said: that the founders would be ashamed of the graven image. In short, he says that the molten image was falsehood, for there was in them no spirit. He changes the number (singular/plural), but the meaning is clear.

We have seen before that idols were said to be the teaching of vanities; for those who ascribed the glory of God to wood and stone were extremely deceived and became entirely foolish.

The pagans might say that they had never thought such a thing, but facts proved that they were liars and made only vain pretenses. For why did they place confidence in their idols? Why did they bow down before them? Why did they address prayers and supplications to them? They then believed that God was present in the visible form.

Now the Prophet says that this was the teaching of vanities, because those who made a figure or image of God thought that God was like gold and silver, and that He had some affinity with dead elements, destitute of reason and understanding. For the same purpose, he now adds that the molten image is falsehood; Why? Because the truth of God is turned into falsehood, as Paul says (Romans 1:25).

It is, therefore, a monstrous absurdity when people imagine that wood or stone is an image of God, for there is no similarity, nor can such a thought enter a person’s mind without a grievous and atrocious indignity being offered to God.

The reason must also be noted: For there is no spirit in them. God, so to speak, is the life of all living things. Now, to call a dead thing—a thing in which there is no mind or life—an image of God, is this not to turn light into darkness?

This reason, then, ought to be remembered by us, and it is a sufficient refutation of all such errors when the Prophet says that there is no spirit in idols (that is, in wood, stone, gold, and silver) and that they are therefore a lie. For God will not have Himself compared to dead things, without mind and life. He then adds—