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Psalm 135:15
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
13Your name, LORD, endures forever; your renown, LORD, throughout all generations.
14For the LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants.
15The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
16They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see.
Notice
Silver and gold can command respect, yet the verse exposes the idols’ dependence on the human hands that shaped them.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
How does “the work of men’s hands” challenge the honor given to silver and gold idols?
Write on thisHow does this verse challenge the weight you give to wealth or human craftsmanship?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.Both verses describe the idols as silver and gold, made by human hands.
Habakkuk 2:18–19“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in …Both passages expose idols as human handiwork; Habakkuk also names the maker’s trust in the mute thing he fashions.
Acts 17:29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.Both texts challenge treating silver, gold, and human craftsmanship as divine.
Jeremiah 10:3–11For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.Both passages trace objects of worship back to human labor, whether working precious metals or cutting wood.
Isaiah 37:19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.Both texts identify the nations’ gods as human handiwork; Isaiah describes their destruction by fire.
Isaiah 44:9–20Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be …Both passages identify people as the makers of images treated as gods.
Isaiah 46:6–7Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship.Both passages name silver and gold as materials for idols; Isaiah describes paying a goldsmith and worshiping what he makes.
Deuteronomy 4:28There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.Both passages describe gods made by human hands, though they name different materials.
Daniel 3:1Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of …The shared detail is a gold image made by people; Daniel names the king who had it made and erected.
Isaiah 40:19–20A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.Both passages connect idols with human craftsmanship and precious metals, including gold and silver.
Jeremiah 10:4They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it can’t move.Both passages describe idols adorned or formed with silver and gold through human work.
Psalm 96:5For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.Both passages identify the nations’ gods as idols; Psalm 96 also names the LORD as the maker of the heavens.
Where this verse fits
Praise and worship. temptation. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Precious metal cannot make a god. In the surrounding verses, YHWH’s name endures and he has compassion on his servants; these idols depend on human hands for their form.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).