Isaiah 40:19

Bible in Basic English

The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
An idol?—something that a smelter castsand a metalworker plates with goldand makes silver chains for?

Hebrew Names Version
The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains.

King James Version
The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

English Standard Version
An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.

New American Standard Bible
As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

New Century Version
An idol is formed by a craftsman, and a goldsmith covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it.

Amplified Bible
As for the cast image (idol), a metalworker casts it, A goldsmith overlays it with gold And a silversmith casts its silver chains.

World English Bible
The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains.

Geneva Bible (1587)
The workeman melteth an image, or the goldsmith beateth it out in golde, or the goldesmith maketh siluer plates.

Legacy Standard Bible
As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it,A goldsmith plates it with gold,And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

Berean Standard Bible
To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?

Contemporary English Version
Is an idol at all like God? It is made of bronze with a thin layer of gold, and decorated with silver.

Complete Jewish Bible
An image made by a craftsman, which a goldsmith overlays with gold, for which he then casts silver chains?

Darby Translation
The workman casteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains [for it].

Easy-to-Read Version
No, but some people make statues from rock or wood, and they call them gods. One worker makes a statue. Then another worker covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it.

George Lamsa Translation
Is he an image which the carpenter has made and the goldsmith has overlaid with gold and fastened with silver chains?

Good News Translation
He is not like an idol that workers make, that metalworkers cover with gold and set in a base of silver.

Lexham English Bible
A craftsman pours out the idol, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and he smelts chains of silver.

Literal Translation
The craftsman pours out the casted image, the smelter spreads it with gold; and he casts the chains of silver.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Shal the caruer make him a carued ymage? and shal the goldsmyth couer him with golde, or cast him in to a fourme of syluer plates?

American Standard Version
The image, a workman hath cast it, and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold, and casteth for it silver chains.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
The image perchance, which the craftsman hath melted, and the goldsmith spread over with gold, the silversmith casting silver chains?

King James Version (1611)
The workeman melteth a grauen image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it ouer with golde, and casteth siluer chaines.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Shall the caruer make hym a carued image? and shall the goldesmith couer hym with golde, or cast hym into a fourme of siluer plates?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Has not the artificer made an image, or the goldsmith having melted gold, gilt it over, and made it a similitude?

English Revised Version
The graven image, a workman melted it, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth for it silver chains.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether a smyth schal welle togidere an ymage, ether a gold smyth schal figure it in gold, and a worchere in siluer schal diyte it with platis of siluer?

Update Bible Version
The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains.

Webster's Bible Translation
The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

New English Translation
A craftsman casts an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and forges silver chains for it.

New King James Version
The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains.

New Living Translation
Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?

New Life Bible
An able workman makes a false god. A man who works with gold covers it with gold. And a man who works with silver makes silver chains for it.

New Revised Standard
An idol? —A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The image, hath been cast by an artificer, And a goldsmith, with gold, overlayeth it, - And, chains of silver, he worketh.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

Revised Standard Version
The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains.

Young's Literal Translation
The graven image poured out hath a artizan, And a refiner with gold spreadeth it over, And chains of silver he is refining.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will you put forward as a comparison with him? ¹⁹ The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it. ²⁰ The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved. ²¹ Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was placed on its base? ²² It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place. ²³ He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value. ²⁴ They have only now been planted, and their seed put into the earth, and they have only now taken root, when he sends out his breath over them and they become dry, and the storm-wind takes them away like dry grass. ²⁵ Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy One. ²⁶ Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength, because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 37:18, Isaiah 37:19, Isaiah 41:6, Isaiah 41:7, Isaiah 44:10-12, Isaiah 46:6, Isaiah 46:7, Exodus 32:2-4, Judges 17:4, Psalms 115:4-8, Psalms 135:15, Psalms 135:18, Jeremiah 10:3-5, Jeremiah 10:9, Hosea 8:6, Habakkuk 2:18, Habakkuk 2:19

Reciprocal: Exodus 32:3 - General Exodus 32:4 - These Isaiah 44:12 - The smith Jeremiah 10:4 - deck Daniel 3:1 - made Daniel 5:4 - of gold Revelation 9:20 - and idols

Cross-References

Genesis 40:13
After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as you did before, when you were his wine-servant.

Genesis 40:17
And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head.

Genesis 40:22
But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging, as Joseph had said.

Genesis 40:23
But the wine-servant did not keep Joseph in mind or give a thought to him.

Genesis 41:13
And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place, and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging.

Joshua 8:29
And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day.

Joshua 10:26
Then Joshua had them put to death, hanging them on five trees, where they were till evening.

1 Samuel 17:44
And the Philistine said to David, Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

1 Samuel 17:46
This day the Lord will give you up into my hands, and I will overcome you, and take your head off you; and I will give the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth today, so that all the earth may see that Israel has a God;

2 Samuel 21:6
Let seven men of his family be given up to us and we will put an end to them by hanging them before the Lord in Gibeon, on the hill of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The workman melteth a graven image,.... Or, "the founder"; he melts some sort of metal, as iron, brass, copper, or lead, which he casts into a mould for an image, and afterwards graves, or gets it graved:

and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold; or, "the finer"; he stretches out plates of gold, and covers it with them, so that it looks as if it was made of solid gold, and deceives the eyes of men; such stupidity and vanity are there in mortals to believe that there can be deity in such a piece of workmanship!

and casteth silver chains to put about the graven image, either for ornament, or rather to fasten it to some wall or pillar, that it may stand upright, and may not be taken down and stole away, or blown down with the wind, or fall of itself and be broken; thus ridiculing the weakness of these idols, and the folly of the makers and worshippers of them. The Targum is,

"the silversmith joins silver chains to it.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The workman - The Hebrew word denotes an artificer of any kind, and is applied to one who engraved on wood or stone Exodus 28:2; to a workman in iron, brass, stone, wood Exodus 35:35; Deuteronomy 27:15; or an artisan, or artificer in general. It here refers manifestly to a man who worked in the metals of which idols were commonly made. Those idols were sometimes made of wood, sometimes of clay, but more frequently, as they are at present in India, of metal. It became, undoubtedly, a regular trade or business thus to make idol-gods.

Melteth - Casts or founds.

A graven image - (פסל pesel). This word commonly denotes an image carved or graven from wood Exodus 20:4; Judges 17:3; Isaiah 44:15, Isaiah 44:17; but it is also frequently applied to a molten image, or one that is cast from metals Jeremiah 10:14; Jeremiah 51:17. It is used in this sense here; as there is an incongruity in the idea of casting, or melting a graven image.

And the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold - Idols were frequently overlaid with gold or silver. Those which were in the temples of the gods were probably commonly made in this way, and probably those also which were made for private use, as far as it could be afforded. The word here rendered ‘goldsmith,’ however, does not of necessity man a worker in gold, but a smith in general, or a worker in any kind of metals.

And casteth silver chains - For the idol. These were not to fasten it, but for the purpose of ornament. The general principle seems to have been to decorate their idols with that which was regarded as the highest ornament among the people; and as chains were used in abundance as a part of their personal ornaments among the Orientals (see the notes at Isaiah 3:23), so they made use of the same kind of ornaments for their idols. The idols of the Hindoos now are lavishly decorated in this manner.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 40:19. And casteth silver chains - "And forgeth for it chains of silver."] For צורף tsoreph, the participle, twenty-seven MSS., five ancient, and three editions, read צרף tsaraph, pret. third person.