Habakkuk 2:18

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it,.... The graven images the church of Rome enjoins the worship of; the images of the Trinity, of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, of

What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

Here the prophet removes the confidences of Babylon; she would boast of her gods, and depend on them, but this will be vain and unprofitable, it is not imaginable that these idols should help these persons. The graven image; carved in wood, or stone, for of such materials did these idolmakers sometimes make their gods. The maker: it is brutish folly in any one to value, or desire to be helped, by such lifeless idols, but it is greatest folly for him that makes the image, that remember how it was hewed, plead, tumbled about, and all this without the least degree of sense or feeling of what it suffered; and can that be sensible of my sorrows which feels not any thing itself? The molten image; idols made of gold or silver, or any other rustle metal, were framed out of the metal first melted, and are therefore called molten images. A teacher of lies; but whether graven or molten, yet all such images are but teachers of lies, ,14. They withdraw the mind from God, our true and only helper, and bewitch men to trust to idols, in which is no help, which ever proved lies to all that trusted on them. That the maker; who knows, for he saw that there was no life, strength, or wisdom in one or other; it is shameless in any, but most in him that made the idol, to worship his own work, and rely upon that which he knows hath no eyes, or hands, or ears, but what his tool framed for it. His work; his own work, and yet his god! the product of his art, and yet the hope of his soul! O brutish folly, self-contradiction! Trusteth therein; resteth confident of defence, and rescue from evil, by it. Dumb idols; which neither can answer a question, nor give a direction in a strait; can neither promise good to a friend, nor denounce a threat against an enemy.

Habakkuk 2:18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?Ver. 18. What profiteth the graven image] The Chaldees promised themselves much help against their enemies from their idols; and were ready to say, as that Roman emperor, Antoninus, the philosopher, did, when he was to meet his enemy, Non sic deos coluimus, ut ille nos vinceret: We have not so served the gods as that he should overcome us. The prophet here rejecteth their confidence, and layeth open their folly. See the like Jeremiah 10:8; Jeremiah 10:14-15 Zechariah 10:2 Isaiah 44:16-17, &c. Confer Jeremiah 51:47; Jeremiah 51:52 Ezekiel 20:30; Ezekiel 20:32. That the maker thereof hath graven it] And can he hope for help from the work of his own hands? can the image give that to others which it hath not for itself? In Henry VIII’ s time one Mr Cotismore was accused of heresy, for saying that images were but carpenter’ s chips; and that when men go to offer to them, they did it to show their new gear. The men of Cockram, not pleased with their new rood, quarrelled with the joiner, and refused to pay him; he complained to the mayor of Doncaster, who gave them this counsel: Pay the poor man his money, and go your ways home, and look on it, and if it will not serve for a god, make no more ado, but clap a pair of horns on his head, and so he will make an excellent devil. This the parishioners took well in worth; the poor man had his money, and various laughed well at itt; but so did not the Babylonish priests, saith Mr Fox. Horace brings in Priapus, that ridiculous garden god, saying thus, “ Olim truncus cram ficulnus, &c. ” He thought no otherwise of the images of Jupiter, and the rest; but durst not say so, for fear of the people. So that of him it might be said, as Augustine doth of Seneca, who wrote a book against superstitions, but colebat quod reprehendebat, agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat, adorabat, he reproved them, but yet used them (De Civ. Dei, lib. 6. c. 10). The molten image, and a teacher of lies] Pictura falsa veritas est, saith one. It is but a shadow of the person that it representeth. God cannot be pictured or expressed by any image. Images of Christ are not only defects, but also lies, saith the homily against peril of idolatry, set forth in Queen Elizabeth’ s days. Irenseus reproveth the Gnostics for carrying about the images of Christ, made in Pilate’ s time, after his own proportion. Lactantius saith that there is no religion where there is an image. Varro had said the same long before him, as Austin reciteth him.

(6-20) The destruction of the Chaldæans has hitherto been only implied. It is now plainly foretold in a denunciatory song, put into the mouths of the invader’s victims. In this song there are five strophes, of three verses each, 6-8; 9-11; 12-14; 15-17; 18-20.

Verse 18. What profiteth the graven image] This is against idolatry in general, and every species of it, as well as against those princes, priests, and people who practice it, and encourage others to do the same. See on the parallel passages in the margin. (Isaiah 44:9-10; Isaiah 46:2) Dumb idols?] אלילים אלמים elilim illemim, "dumb nothings." This is exactly agreeable to St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 8:4, who says, "An idol is nothing in the world." What signify the idols worshipped by the Chaldeans, Tyrians, and Egyptians? They have not been able to save their worshippers.

18–20. Fifth woe: the irrational idolatries of the Chaldean. Isaiah 19:1; Isaiah 21:918. What profiteth the graven image?] The idea that the idols do not profit, i.e. save or deliver, is often expressed; 1 Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 44:10; Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:11; Jeremiah 16:19. Comp. Isaiah 46; Jeremiah 10. and a teacher of lies] Here the “teacher” is the idol itself, not its priest or prophet as in Isaiah 9:15, because the priest or prophet only expressed the indications or intimations given by the god. These intimations are called “lies,” Zechariah 10:2. The term teacher occurs in the name Oak Moreh (Genesis 12:6), which was probably a “talking oak,” in which a deity resided and from which (whether through its rustling or otherwise, cf. 2 Samuel 5:24) oracles were drawn. Deuteronomy 11:30; cf. Judges 9:37, the oak of the Meonenim (augurs).

What profiteth - (Hath profited) הועיל מה. Samuel warned them, “Serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside; for (it would be) after vanities which will not profit nor deliver for they

18. What profiteth — A rhetorical question, equivalent to “It profiteth nothing”; the idols can render no help in the hour of calamity (Amos 2:4; 1 Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 44:10). Graven image — See on Micah 5:13.