Lectionary Calendar
Monday, June 9th, 2025
the Week of Proper 5 / Ordinary 10
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Deuteronomy 4:28

There you will serve gods made by human hands, gods of wood and stone, gods that cannot see or hear, eat or smell.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Backsliders;   Idol;   Idolatry;   Obedience;   Stones;   Thompson Chain Reference - False;   Idolatry;   Worship, False;   Worship, True and False;   The Topic Concordance - Idolatry;   Israel/jews;   Last Days;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Idolatry;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Covenant;   Type, typology;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Heart;   Idol, Idolatry;   Israel;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Polytheism;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Nehemiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Baptism of Fire;   Deuteronomy, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Deuteronomy;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Mount hermon;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Smell;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Azariah;   Hafá¹­arah;   Sidra;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
King James Version
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Lexham English Bible
And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.
English Standard Version
And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
New Century Version
There you will worship gods made by people, gods made of wood and stone, that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
New English Translation
There you will worship gods made by human hands—wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
Amplified Bible
"And there you will serve [false and foreign] gods, the work of human hands, [lifeless images of] wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell [the offerings of food given to them].
New American Standard Bible
"There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And there ye shall serue gods, euen ye worke of mans hand, wood, and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smell.
Legacy Standard Bible
And there you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Contemporary English Version
There you will have to worship gods made of wood and stone, and these are nothing but idols that can't see or hear or eat or smell.
Complete Jewish Bible
There you will serve gods which are the product of human hands, made of wood and stone, which can't see, hear, eat or smell.
Darby Translation
And ye shall there serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Easy-to-Read Version
There you will serve gods made by men—things made of wood and stone that cannot see or hear or eat or smell!
George Lamsa Translation
And there you shall serve gods, the work of mens hands, of wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Christian Standard Bible®
There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
Literal Translation
And there you shall serve other gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which cannot see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There shal ye serue goddes, which are ye workes of mens handes, euen wodd & stone, which nether se ner heare, ner eate ner smell.
American Standard Version
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Bible in Basic English
There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And there ye shall serue gods which are the worke of mans hande, wood and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smell.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
King James Version (1611)
And there ye shall serue gods, the worke of mens hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor heare, nor eate, nor smell.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And ye shall there serve other gods, the works of the hands of men, wood and stones, which cannot see, nor can they hear, nor eat, nor smell.
English Revised Version
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Berean Standard Bible
And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And there ye schulen serue to goddis, that ben maad bi `the hond of men, to a tre and a stoon, that `seen not, nether heren, nether eten, nether smellen.
Young's Literal Translation
and ye have served there gods, work of man's hands, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Update Bible Version
And there you shall serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Webster's Bible Translation
And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
World English Bible
There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
New King James Version
And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
New Living Translation
There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
New Life Bible
There you will work for gods made by man's hands out of wood and stone. They do not see or hear or eat or smell.
New Revised Standard
There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and ye will serve there gods made by the hands of man, - wood or stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And there you shall serve gods, that were framed with men’s hands: wood and stone, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Revised Standard Version
And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of men's hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

Contextual Overview

1 Then Moses said to the people, "Obey all the laws that I am teaching you, and you will live and occupy the land which the Lord , the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add anything to what I command you, and do not take anything away. Obey the commands of the Lord your God that I have given you. 3 You yourselves saw what the Lord did at Mount Peor. He destroyed everyone who worshiped Baal there, 4 but those of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today. 5 "I have taught you all the laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Obey them in the land that you are about to invade and occupy. 6 Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!' 7 "No other nation, no matter how great, has a god who is so near when they need him as the Lord our God is to us. He answers us whenever we call for help. 8 No other nation, no matter how great, has laws so just as those that I have taught you today. 9 Be on your guard! Make certain that you do not forget, as long as you live, what you have seen with your own eyes. Tell your children and your grandchildren 10 about the day you stood in the presence of the Lord your God at Mount Sinai, when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say, so that they will learn to obey me as long as they live and so that they will teach their children to do the same.'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye shall: Deuteronomy 28:36, Deuteronomy 28:64, 1 Samuel 26:19, Jeremiah 16:13, Ezekiel 20:32, Ezekiel 20:39, Acts 7:42

neither see: Psalms 115:4-7, Psalms 135:15, Psalms 135:16, Isaiah 44:9, Isaiah 45:20, Isaiah 46:7, Jeremiah 10:3, Jeremiah 10:9

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 30:2 - return unto 2 Kings 17:40 - but they did 2 Chronicles 32:19 - the work Isaiah 2:8 - worship Isaiah 26:15 - thou hadst Isaiah 44:13 - he marketh Ezekiel 20:25 - I gave Hosea 8:11 - altars

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone,.... Idols made by men, cut out of wood and stone; these they should be enticed into the service of, or compelled to serve; which was still more brutish and stupid than to worship the sun, moon, and stars, which were not the works of men's hand, but the glorious works of the eternal God. But since in their captivities they were not subject to idolatry, but were cured of it thereby, another sense of the words is given by some, as by Onkelos and Jonathan, who paraphrase the words of serving the people, that serve idols; but what follows confirms the first sense:

which neither see, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell; senseless things, which have none of the senses of seeing, hearing, and smelling, nor the faculty of eating, which they need not to support life, of which they are destitute; and therefore it must be monstrous stupidity to worship such lifeless, senseless, objects; see Psalms 115:4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare with these verses Leviticus 26:33-40, and Deuteronomy 28:64 ff.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 4:28. There ye shall serve gods - wood and stone — This was also true of the Israelites, not only in their captivities, but also in their own land. And it may now be literally the case with the ten tribes who were carried away captive by the Assyrians, and of whose residence no man at present knows any thing with certainty. That they still exist there can be no doubt; but they are now, most probably, so completely incorporated with the idolaters among whom they dwell, as to be no longer distinguish able: yet God can gather them.


 
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