John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 10:4-5

"They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." — Jeremiah 10:4-5 (ASV)

He continues with the same subject and borrows his words from the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah (Isaiah 44); for the passage is wholly similar. Jeremiah, being later, was induced to take the words from his predecessor, so that his own nation might be more impressed on finding that the same thing was said by two Prophets, and that thus they had two witnesses.

He then says that these wise men, who filled the Jews with wonder and astonishment, adorned their images, or statues, with silver and gold, and afterward fixed them with nails and with hammers, that they might not move. Some refer the last word to the metal, “that the pieces might not come off,” as the verb sometimes means to depart. But the simpler meaning is that the statues were fixed by nails and hammers, so that they might not be moved. Then the Prophet adds by way of concession, They are indeed erect as the palm-trees; and thus there appears in them something remarkable: but they speak not; and then, being raised they are raised, that is, they cannot move themselves; for they cannot walk. Then he says, Be not afraid of them; for they do no evil, nor is it in their power to do good.

We now see what the Prophet meant to teach us: that the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and also of the Egyptians, was celebrated throughout the world, and also so blinded the Jews, or so enraptured them, that they thought that nothing proceeded from them but what deserved to be known and esteemed.

Therefore, to remove and demolish this false notion, he shows that they were beyond measure foolish. For what could have been more senseless than to think that the nature of a tree is changed as soon as it receives a new form? How? By the hand of the artificer. Can it be in the power of man to make a god at his will? This is a folly which pagan authors have derided. Horace has this sentence: —

“When the workman was uncertain whether to make a bench or Priapus,
He chose rather to make a god.”

That poet, as he dared not generally condemn the madness which then prevailed, indirectly showed how shameful it was to make a log of wood a god, because the workman had given it a form. The very richest worshipped a wooden god, while he despised the artificer! He who would not have condescended to give the workman a cup of water, yet prostrated himself before the god which the workman had made! This then is what our Prophet now says, “Behold, with silver and gold do they adorn trunks of trees; they indeed stood up, for they are erect statues;” and he compares them to palm-trees, because they stood high: and he says, “but they speak not; they are raised up, for they have no life; hence fear them not:” and then he adds, “They cannot do evil, and it is not in their power to do good.”

The Prophet seems to speak improperly when he says that they were not gods because they could do no evil, for it is wholly contrary to the nature of the only true God to do evil.

But the Prophet, according to common usage, uses the word for the infliction of punishment. God, then, is said to do evil, not because He does harm to anyone, nor because He does wrong to any mortals, but because He chastises them for their sins.

This is a way of speaking derived from common human judgment, for we call those things evils that are afflictions to us; for famine, diseases, poverty, cold, heat, disgrace, and things of this kind are called afflictions or adversities.

Now, the Prophet says that the idols of the Gentiles, or their fictitious gods, do no evil—that is, they have no power to inflict punishment on men. And this is taken from Isaiah. God uses there a twofold argument while claiming divinity to Himself alone: He says,

“I alone am He who foresees and predicts future things;”

and hence I am God alone; and then He says,

“I alone am He who does good and evil;”

hence I alone am God. (Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 48:3, 5). He says that He does evil because He is the Judge of the world. We hence see that this expression is not to be taken in a bad sense, but, as I have said, it is to be taken in a sense used by men; for we consider and call those punishments, with which God visits us, evils.