Jeremias 51:17
Every man is become foolish by his knowledge: every founder is confounded by his idol, for what he hath cast is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
Open Jeremias 51:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Stultus factus est omnis homo a scientia ; confusus est omnis conflator in sculptili : quia mendax est conflatio eorum, nec est spiritus in eis.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Jeremias 28:17
- ἐματαιώθη πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἀπὸ γνώσεως, κατῃσχύνθη πᾶς χρυσοχόος ἀπὸ τῶν γλυπτῶν αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ψευδῆ ἐχώνευσαν, οὐκ ἔστιν πνεῦμα ἐν αὐτοῖς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- נִבְעַ֤ר כָּל אָדָם֙ מִדַּ֔עַת הֹבִ֥ישׁ כָּל צֹרֵ֖ף מִפָּ֑סֶל כִּ֛י שֶׁ֥קֶר נִסְכּ֖וֹ וְלֹא ר֥וּחַ בָּֽם
Haydock's commentary
Every man, &c. That is, every maker of idols, however he boasts of his knowledge and skill, does but shew himself a fool in pretending to make a god. (Challoner) (Wisdom xiv. 18.)
By his, or "by default of knowledge;" (a scientia. Haydock) as the Hebrew may also mean. The Babylonians were so confounded, they knew not what to do. (Calmet)
Protestants, "Every man is brutish by his knowledge." Marginal note, or "is more brutish than to know," chap. x. 14. (Haydock)
Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).
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 Theophilus of Antioch Theophilus to Autolycus, Chapter XXXV. Precepts from the Prophetic Books
The divine law, then, not only forbids the worshipping of idols, but also of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, or the other stars; yea, not heaven, nor earth, nor the sea, nor fountains, nor rivers, must be worshipped, but we must serve in holiness of heart and sincerity of purpose only the living and true God, who also is Maker of the universe. Wherefore saith the holy law: “Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not desire thy neighbour’s wife.” So also the prophets. …
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. …