For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.

For the statutes of the peoples are vanity; for it is a tree cut out of the forest, worked with a chisel by the hands of the artizan;

For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

For the statutes of the peoples are vanity, For a tree from a forest hath one cut, Work of the hands of an artificer, with an axe,

For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.

For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe.

Quoniam statuta populorum vanitas est: nam lignum a sylva scindit, opus manuum artificis dolabra (vel, in securi; nam ponitur v, quoe est nota instrumenti apud Hebroeos.)

The Prophet seems to break off his subject, and even to reason inconclusively; for he had said in the last verse, "Learn not the rites of the Gentiles, and fear not the celestial signs;" and he now adds, Because the rites of the Gentiles are vanity; for wood they cut down from the forest. He seems then, as though forgetting himself, to have passed off to idols. But we must observe, that the Jews were influenced by that ancient opinion, that the Chaldeans and the Egyptians were alone wise, and that they had acquired a fame of this kind among all nations. We find also that heathen writers, when speaking of the origin of the sciences, trace them up to the Chaldeans and the Egyptians; for with them, it is said, have originated astrology and all the liberal sciences. The Jews then, no doubt, allowed so much authority to the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, that their minds, being possessed by that prejudice, could discern nothing aright. The Prophet then shakes off from them this stupidity, and shews how foolish they were, who yet would have themselves to be alone deemed wise, and regarded others, compared with themselves, as barbarous and ignorant. We now then see why the Prophet connects idolatry with that false and spurious astrology which he had mentioned. He says, Laws: the word, chqvt, chekut, means strictly, statutes. The word, chq chek, signifies to decree, or to write; and hence decrees are called chqvt, chekut. The word Law is general; and one of those which are special and often occurs in Scripture, is the statute. Some render it "Edict;" and the verb means to publish by edict. But this word is often applied to ceremonies and rites. He then says, that the rites of the nations were vanity. He then proves this, Because they cut for themselves trees from the forest; and after having polished them by art, they think them to be gods. How detestable was this madness, to think that a tree, cut from the forest, was a god, as soon as it assumed a certain form or shape! As then a madness, so great and so monstrous, prevailed among the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, what right knowledge or judgment could have been in them? The Jews then were very foolish in thinking that they were very clear -- sighted. "They are," he says, "brute animals; for it is wholly contrary to reason to suppose that a god can be made from a dead piece of wood. When, therefore, the Chaldeans and the Egyptians amaze and astonish you through the influence of a false opinion, derived from nothing, that they are alone wise, do ye not see that ye are doubly and trebly mad? for where is their wisdom, when they thus make gods from trunks of trees?" We now then perceive the design of the Prophet: but as these circumstances have not been considered by interpreters, they have only elicited a frigid doctrine and gathered some general thoughts. But when any one rightly and carefully examines the design of the Prophet, he will find how important is what he teaches; and no one can otherwise rightly understand what Jeremiah means. A tree then does one cut, etc.: he uses the singular number. [1] He then adds, the work of the hands of the artificer by the ax He shews that nature itself is changed through the false imagination of men; for as soon as it takes a new form, it seems to be no longer a tree. The tree, while it grows, when it produces fruit, is not worshipped as God; but when it is cut down, the dead and dry trunk is substituted in the place of God: for what reason? even because the ax has been applied. Some render it "hatchet," hache, ou doloire, which is the same; for there is no ambiguity in the meaning: they cut down trees from the forests; and then after the tree was formed by the ax and worked by the hands of the artificer, what follows was done to it --

Footnotes

1 - This is not correct, the verb is plural, and there is no different reading. The Vulgate has led Calvin and our translators astray here. The other versions never changed the form of the sentence. The verse may be thus rendered, -- 3. Verily, the customs of the nations are very vanity; For a tree from the forest they cut down, -- The work of the hands of the worker with the ax! Then verbs in the plural number follow in the next verse, -- 4. With silver and with gold they beautify, With nails and with hammers they fasten them, So that none may move them The verb for "move" is in Hiphil; it means in Kal to totter, "that none may cause them to totter." But the Septuagint have rendered the verb "cut down" as a passive participle, krvt, transposing the v; and Venema takes this as the proper reading, -- "For a tree from the forest is cut down." But this does not run well with the following verse. The nations or heathens, is the nominative to all the verbs. Venema renders the last line of the fourth verse, -- That nothing may make them to reel. He considers that l' means often "nothing;" but it means also sometimes, "none," or no one. -- Ed

The customs - Better, as the marg, "the ordinances," established institutions, "of the peoples, i. e." pagan nations.

The customs of the people are vain - חקות chukkoth; the statutes and principles of the science are vain, empty, and illusory. They are founded in nonsense, ignorance, idolatry, and folly.
One cutteth a tree out of the forest - See the notes on Isaiah 40:19 (note), and Isaiah 44:9 (note), etc., which are all parallel places and where this conduct is strongly ridiculed.

For the (b) customs of the people [are] vain: for [one] cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
(b) Meaning not only in the observation of the stars, but their laws and ceremonies by which they confirm their idolatry, which is forbidden, (Deuteronomy 12:30).

For the customs of the people are vain,.... Or, "their decrees", or "statutes" (o), their determinations and conclusions, founded upon the observation of the stars; or, their "rites and ceremonies" (p) in religion, in the worship of the sun and moon, and the hosts of heaven. The Syriac version is, "the idols of the people are nothing"; and which appears by what follows:
for one cutteth a tree out of the forest (the work of the hands of the workman) with the axe; not for building, or for burning, but to make a god of; the vanity, stupidity, and folly of which are manifest, when it is considered that the original of it is a tree that grew in the forest; the matter and substance of it the body and trunk of a tree cut down with an axe, and then hewed with the same, and planed with a plane, and formed into the image of a man, or of some creature; and now, to fall down and worship this must be vanity and madness to the last degree; see Isaiah 44:13.
(o) "decreta", Targ.; "statua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt. (p) Ritus, Vatablus; "ceremoniae", Tigurine version.