Psalms 115:8
in Psalms 115Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them.
KJV
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
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This verse in Psalms 115
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThey that make them are like unto them,.... As stupid as the matter of which they are made; as sottish and as senseless as the idols themselves, see Isa 44:9. Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it as a petition, "let them that make them be like unto them"; and so the Targum, the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions: they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, let them be given up to a reprobate mind, to a mind void of all sense and judgment; and which indeed is their case, Rom 1:
This site's exposition
Their idols are silver and gold
on Psalms 115:4-8
The idols are silver and gold. Seven organs are named: mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, feet and throats, and every one of them is dead. Verse 8 turns it on the maker: a man who makes an idol comes to resemble it, and so does everyone who trusts it.
This site's exposition
Those who make them become like them
Gill reported that Kimchi and the ancient versions read the line as a prayer, and Spurgeon read it as a plain statement. Psalm 135:18 repeats the line word for word. Either way the one who trusts an idol ends with its blind eyes and silent mouth.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The result that ensues is that described in the next verse: "They that make them are like them, and so are all such as put their trust in them" [Psalm 115:8]. Let them therefore see with open eyes, and worship with shut and dead understandings, idols that neither see nor live.
The result that ensues is that described in the next verse: "They that make them are like them, and so are all such as put their trust in them" [Psalm 115:8]. Let them therefore see with open eyes, and worship with shut and dead understandings, idols that neither see nor live.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
By worshipping these foolish puppets, they make themselves more and more foolish like them, and set themselves at a greater distance from every thing that is spiritual, sinking themselves deeper into the mire of sense; and withal they provoke God to give them up to a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment, Rom. i.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
They that make them are like unto them. Those who make such things for worship are as stupid, senseless, and irrational as the figures they construct. So far as any spiritual life, thought, and judgment are concerned, they are rather the images of men than rational beings. The censure is by no means too severe. Who has not found the words leaping to his lips when he has seen the idols of the Romans? So is every one that trusteth in them.
They that make them are like unto them. Those who make such things for worship are as stupid, senseless, and irrational as the figures they construct. So far as any spiritual life, thought, and judgment are concerned, they are rather the images of men than rational beings. The censure is by no means too severe. Who has not found the words leaping to his lips when he has seen the idols of the Romans? So is every one that trusteth in them. Those who have sunk so low as to be capable of confiding in idols have reached the extreme of folly, and are worthy of as much contempt as their detestable deities. Luther's hard speeches were well deserved by the Papists; they must be mere dolts to worship the rotten relics which are the objects of their veneration. The god of modern thought exceedingly resembles the deities described in this Psalm. Pantheism is wondrously akin to Polytheism, and yet differs very little from Atheism. The god manufactured by our great thinkers is a mere abstraction: he has no eternal purposes, he does not interpose on the behalf of his people, he cares but very little as to how much man sins, for he has given to the initiated "a larger hope" by which the most incorrigible are to be restored. He is what the last set of critics chooses to make him, he has said what they choose to say, and lie will do what they please to prescribe. Let this creed and its devotees alone, and they will work out their own refutation, for as now their god is fashioned like themselves, they will by degrees fashion themselves like their god; and when the principles of justice, law, and order shall have all been effectually sapped we may possibly witness in some form of socialism, similar to that which is so sadly spreading in Germany, a repetition of the evils which have in former ages befallen nations which have refused the living God, and set up gods of their own.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They that make them are like unto them - Stupid; senseless; irrational. See the notes at Isa 44:9-20. So is everyone that trusteth in them - People who do this show that they are destitute of all the proper attributes of reason, since such gods cannot help them. It is most strange, as it appears to us, that the worshippers of idols did not themselves see this; but this is in reality no more strange than that sinners do not see the folly of their course of sin; that people do not see the folly of worshipping no God. In fact, there is less of folly among the pagan than there is in this class of men. The worship of an idol shows at least that there is some religious tendency in the mind; some conviction that God ought to he worshipped; some aspiration after a proper object of worship; some appreciation of the true dignity and rank of man as made for worship; but what shall be said of the man who evinces no such tendency - who has no such aspiration or desire - who endeavors to extinguish in his nature all that was designed to express the idea of worship, or to lead him to God - who never starts the inquiry whether there is a God - who never prays for light, for guidance, for pardon, for a preparation for death and eternity - who never even testifies so much interest in religion as to set up an image of gold, or wood, or stone, as indicative of the fact that he is made above the brutes? There are multitudes of the pagan less stupid and foolish than people in Christian lands.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כְּ֭מוֹהֶם | kemohem | like them | H3644 → | 143 times |
| יִהְי֣וּ | yihyu | they will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| עֹשֵׂיהֶ֑ם | ʾoseihem | [those who] make them | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| כֹּ֭ל | kol | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אֲשֶׁר־ | ʾasher- | [one] who | H834 → | 5497 times |
| בֹּטֵ֣חַ | boteach | [is] trusting | H982 → | 120 times |
| בָּהֶֽם׃ | bahem | in them |
כְּ֭מוֹהֶםlike them
kemohemH3644 →143 times
יִהְי֣וּthey will be
yihyuH1961 →3559 times
עֹשֵׂיהֶ֑ם[those who] make them
ʾoseihemH6213 →2628 times
כֹּ֭לevery
kolH3605 →5413 times
אֲשֶׁר־[one] who
ʾasher-H834 →5497 times
בֹּטֵ֣חַ[is] trusting
boteachH982 →120 times
בָּהֶֽם׃in them
bahem
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jonah 2:8Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 10:8
But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 31:6
I hate those who cling to worthless idols, but in the LORD I trust.
- 2 Kings 17:15
They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding…
- Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- 1 Samuel 12:21
Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- Jeremiah 10:8
Through
Jeremiah 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
it leads to
- Jeremiah 10:14
Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Zechariah 10:2
For idols speak deceit and diviners see illusions; they tell false dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
- Jeremiah 10:14
Through
Psalms 135:18Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 115; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.