John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 10:3

"For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe." — Jeremiah 10:3 (ASV)

The Prophet seems to break off from his subject and even to reason inconclusively; for he had said in the last verse, Learn not the rites of the Gentiles, and fear not the celestial signs; and he now adds, Because the rites of the Gentiles are vanity; for wood they cut down from the forest. He seems then, as though forgetting himself, to have moved on to idols.

But we must observe that the Jews were influenced by that ancient opinion that the Chaldeans and the Egyptians alone were wise, and that they had acquired a reputation of this kind among all nations. We also find that heathen writers, when speaking of the origin of the sciences, trace them back to the Chaldeans and the Egyptians; for with them, it is said, originated astrology and all the liberal sciences. The Jews then, no doubt, allowed so much authority to the Chaldeans and the Egyptians that their minds, being possessed by that prejudice, could discern nothing correctly. The Prophet then shakes them out of this stupidity and shows how foolish they were, who yet would have themselves be considered exclusively wise, and regarded others, compared with themselves, as barbarous and ignorant. We now see then why the Prophet connects idolatry with that false and spurious astrology which he had mentioned.

He says, Laws: the word חקות (chekut) strictly means statutes. The word חק (chek) signifies to decree or to write; and hence decrees are called חקות (chekut). The word 'Law' is general; and one of those specific terms that often occurs in Scripture is 'statute.' Some render it 'Edict;' and the verb means to publish by edict. But this word is often applied to ceremonies and rites. He then says that the rites of the nations were vanity.

He then proves this: Because they cut for themselves trees from the forest; and after having polished them by art, they think them to be gods. How detestable was this madness, to think that a tree cut from the forest was a god as soon as it assumed a certain form or shape!

Since then such great and monstrous madness prevailed among the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, what correct knowledge or judgment could have been in them? The Jews then were very foolish in thinking that they were very clear-sighted. They are, he says, brute animals; for it is wholly contrary to reason to suppose that a god can be made from a dead piece of wood.

When, therefore, the Chaldeans and the Egyptians amaze and astonish you through the influence of a false opinion, derived from nothing, that they alone are wise, do you not see that you are doubly and trebly mad? For where is their wisdom when they thus make gods from trunks of trees?

We now perceive then the design of the Prophet: but as these circumstances have not been considered by interpreters, they have only elicited a frigid doctrine and gathered some general thoughts. But when anyone rightly and carefully examines the design of the Prophet, he will find how important what he teaches is; and no one can otherwise rightly understand what Jeremiah means.

A tree then does one cut, etc.: he uses the singular number. He then adds, the work of the hands of the artificer by the ax. He shows that nature itself is changed through the false imagination of men; for as soon as it takes a new form, it seems to be no longer a tree. The tree, while it grows and produces fruit, is not worshipped as God; but when it is cut down, the dead and dry trunk is substituted in the place of God. For what reason? Even because the axe has been applied. Some render it 'hatchet,' hache, ou doloire, which is the same, for there is no ambiguity in the meaning: they cut down trees from the forests, and then, after the tree was formed by the axe and worked by the hands of the artificer, what follows was done to it—