1 Chronicles 16:26 Cross References - BBE

²⁶ For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens.

⁴ Do not go after false gods, and do not make metal images of gods for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.

²⁵ In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

⁴ Their images are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. ⁵ They have mouths, but no voice; they have eyes, but they see not; ⁶ They have ears, but no hearing; they have noses, but no sense of smell; ⁷ They have hands without feeling, and feet without power of walking; and no sound comes from their throat. ⁸ Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone who puts his faith in them.

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.

⁵ God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who go about on it, says:

⁹ Those who make a pictured image are all of them as nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so they will be put to shame. ¹⁰ Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image in which there is no profit. ¹¹ Truly, all those who make use of secret arts will be put to shame, and their words of power are only words of men: let them all come forward together; they will all be in fear and be put to shame. ¹² The iron-worker is heating the metal in the fire, giving it form with his hammers, and working on it with his strong arm: then for need of food his strength gives way, and for need of water he becomes feeble. ¹³ The woodworker is measuring out the wood with his line, marking it out with his pencil: after smoothing it with his plane, and making circles on it with his instrument, he gives it the form and glory of a man, so that it may be placed in the house. ¹⁴ He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak and lets it get strong among the trees of the wood; he has an ash-tree planted, and the rain gives it growth. ¹⁵ Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it. ¹⁶ With part of it he makes a fire, and on the fire he gets meat cooked and takes a full meal: he makes himself warm, and says, Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire: ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his pictured image: he goes down on his face before it, giving worship to it, and making prayer to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you are my god. ¹⁸ They have no knowledge or wisdom; for he has put a veil over their eyes, so that they may not see; and on their hearts, so that they may not give attention. ¹⁹ And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made bread on it; I have had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go down on my face before a bit of wood? ²⁰ As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he has been turned from the way by a twisted mind, so that he is unable to keep himself safe by saying, What I have here in my hand is false.

²⁴ The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and giving the earth its limits; who was with me?

¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath. ¹¹ This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens. ¹² He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out. ¹³ At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses. ¹⁴ Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.

²⁶ And you see, for it has come to your ears, that not only at Ephesus, but almost all through Asia, this Paul has been teaching numbers of people and turning them away, saying that those are not gods who are made by men's hands:

⁴ So, then, as to the question of taking food offered to images, we are certain that an image is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

⁷ Saying with a loud voice, Have fear of God and give him glory; because the hour of his judging is come; and give worship to him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water.