Jeremiah 10:8 - Exposition

Brutish and foolish . In fact, the original meaning of the idolatrous religions had begun, probably, to fade, and the worship of Bel and Nebo had become (as the worship of the Egyptian gods became at a later period) increasingly formal and ritualistic. T he stock is a doctrine of vanities ; rather, an instruction of vanities ; i . e . all that the idols can teach is vanities. Against this is the plural ("vanities," not vanity); it is more natural (and also more in accordance with usage; comp. Genesis 41:26 , Hebrew) to render, the instruction of the vanities is wooden ("vanities" has the constant technical sense of "idols;" see Jeremiah 8:19 ; Jeremiah 14:22 ; Deuteronomy 32:21 ; Psalms 31:6 ). The clause then furnishes a reason for the folly of the heathen; how should they attain to more than a "wooden" knowledge, when the idols themselves are but wood? A bitter truth in an ironical form.