2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 1 –
he who says 2 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 3
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
2 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
3 tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).