44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless? 1
44:11 Look, all his associates 2 will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans. 3
Let them all assemble and take their stand!
They will panic and be put to shame.
44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool 4
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it 5 with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy; 6
he drinks no water and gets tired.
1 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
2 tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.
3 sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”
4 tn The noun מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.
5 tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.
6 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”