Idol

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

Manufacture of

• Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
• Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
• Exodus 32:20 Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.
• Deuteronomy 4:23 Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of the LORD your God that He made with you; do not make an idol for yourselves in the form of anything He has forbidden you.
• Isaiah 40:19–20 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains? One lacking such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.
• Isaiah 44:9–12 All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing? Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are only hum…
• Isaiah 44:17 From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”
• Habakkuk 2:18 What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it — or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
• Acts 19:24–25 It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen. Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity.

Manufacture of, forbidden

• Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
• Exodus 34:17 You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.

Made of

Gold

• Exodus 32:3–4 Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
• Psalm 115:4–7 Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel; they have feet, but cannot walk; they cannot even clear their throats.
• Psalm 135:15–17 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear; nor is there breath in their mouths.
• Isaiah 2:20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold — the idols they made to worship.
• Isaiah 30:22 So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
• Isaiah 31:7 For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.
• Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.

Silver

• Isaiah 2:20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold — the idols they made to worship.
• Isaiah 30:22 So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
• Isaiah 31:7 For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.
• Hosea 8:4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.

Wood and stone

• Leviticus 26:1 “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
• Deuteronomy 4:28 And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
• 2 Kings 19:18 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone — the work of human hands.
• Isaiah 37:19 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone — the work of human hands.
• Isaiah 41:6 Each one helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
• Isaiah 44:13–19 The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow stron…
• Ezekiel 20:32 When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of the lands, serving wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never come to pass.

Coverings of

• Isaiah 30:22 So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

Prayer to, unanswered

• 1 Kings 18:25–29 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since you are so numerous, choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first. Then call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” And they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon…
• Isaiah 16:12 When Moab appears on the high place, when he wearies himself and enters his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good.

Things offered to, not to be eaten

• Exodus 34:15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

See Iconoclasm