Add parallel Print Page Options

13 The woodworker[a] stretches out a line;
    he makes an outline of it with a marker.
He makes it with a knife
    and makes an outline of it with a compass.
He makes it like the image of a man,
    like the beauty of a human, to dwell in a temple.[b]
14 Cutting down cedars for himself,
    he chooses[c] a holm tree and an oak,
and he lets it grow strong for him among the trees of the forest.
    He plants a cedar, and the rain makes it grow.
15 And it becomes fuel for a human,[d]
    and he takes some of it and grows warm;
    also, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Also, he makes a god and bows in worship;
    he makes himself an image and bows down to it!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 44:13 Literally “craftsman of wood”
  2. Isaiah 44:13 Or “house”
  3. Isaiah 44:14 Literally “takes”
  4. Isaiah 44:15 Literally “will become for a man as burning”

13 The carpenter(A) measures with a line
    and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
    and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,(B)
    human form in all its glory,
    that it may dwell in a shrine.(C)
14 He cut down cedars,
    or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
    or planted a pine,(D) and the rain made it grow.
15 It is used as fuel(E) for burning;
    some of it he takes and warms himself,
    he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships(F) it;
    he makes an idol and bows(G) down to it.

Read full chapter