Jeremias 10:5
They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go. Therefore, fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.
Open Jeremias 10:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- in similitudinem palmæ fabricata sunt, et non loquentur : portata tollentur, quia incedere non valent. Nolite ergo timere ea, quia nec male possunt facere, nec bene.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- θήσουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ οὐ κινηθήσονται· ἀργύριον τορευτόν ἐστιν, οὐ πορεύσονται, ⸂αἰρόμενα ἀρθήσονται, ὅτι οὐκ ἐπιβήσονται. μὴ φοβηθῆτε αὐτά, ὅτι οὐ μὴ κακοποιήσωσιν, καὶ ἀγαθὸν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς.⸃
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כְּתֹ֨מֶר מִקְשָׁ֥ה הֵ֨מָּה֙ וְלֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֔רוּ נָשׂ֥וֹא יִנָּשׂ֖וּא כִּ֣י לֹ֣א יִצְעָ֑דוּ אַל תִּֽירְא֤וּ מֵהֶם֙ כִּי לֹ֣א יָרֵ֔עוּ וְגַם הֵיטֵ֖יב אֵ֥ין אוֹתָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Tree. The ancient statues were ill-formed, (Diodorus 4.) before Dedalus brought the art to greater perfection, and gave them a living attitude.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony LIX
In the Wisdom of Solomon: “All the idols of the nations they counted gods, which neither have the use of their eyes for seeing, nor their nostrils to receive breath, nor their ears for hearing, nor the fingers on their hands for handling; but their feet also are slow to walk. For man made them; and he who has borrowed his breath, he fashioned them. But no man will be able to fashion a god like to himself. For since he is mortal, he fashioneth a dead thing with wicked hands. …