“What use is an idol?
Once its maker
Has shaped it,
It is a cast image,
A teacher of lies.
Its maker trusts
In his own creation,
Even though the product
Is only an idol
That cannot speak.
Woe to you!
You say to the wood.
‘Wake up!’
You say to silent stone.
‘Rouse yourself!’
Can it teach?
See!
It is gold plated.
It is silver plated.
There is no breath
In it at all.
But Yahweh is
In his holy temple.
Let all the earth
Keep silence
Before him.”
This final and fifth curse of Habakkuk was against the Chaldean idols, a favorite theme of the prophets. What good were these idols? They were handmade human creations, full of lies. They could not speak. How foolish they were, when they asked wood and stone to wake up and rouse themselves. These idols cannot teach anything, since they are gold and silver plated, without any breath in them. Contrast that with Yahweh in his holy temple, where all the earth keeps silent before him.
