What Does Psalm 135:15 Mean in the King James?
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse names the idols as fashioned things, so their shining material never erases the human hands that made them.
THE MEANING
When something made is treated as an ultimate source, this verse brings its origin back into view. Its silver and gold remain materials, and the image remains the work of human hands. The power assigned to it does not change what it is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Something does not become a living or ultimate power merely because it is precious, carefully made, or treated as sacred.
THE ROOT
עֲצַבֵּי
ʿatsabbê
GROWS FROM
עצב
ʿatsab: to shape, fashion, or form.
The word for the idols carries a form-related sense: they are shaped objects, and the verse immediately names their makers. Their precious metal does not erase their identity as things fashioned by human hands.
ALSO GROWS
ʿatsav: Idol or image; a fashioned object.
עָצָב
This singular noun shares the root of the verse’s plural form and keeps the image linked to the act of shaping.
ʿitsēv: Fashioned or shaped; to form.
עִצֵּב
This verbal form makes the hidden action in the noun visible: an idol is something formed.
מַעֲשֵׂה
maʿaseh
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿasah: to do, make, or bring about.
The word for work comes from the same root as the verb to make or do, linking the idol’s status to its manufacture. The phrase about human hands makes that origin concrete.
ALSO GROWS
ʿasah: To do or make.
עָשָׂה
This verb is the root action behind the work named in the verse.
maʿaseh: Work, deed, or thing made.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun shares the root consonants and names the result of making.
THE PATTERN
An object fashioned by human hands does not become a living source through precious material or human devotion.
Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.THE THREAD
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.Psalm 115:4 uses עֲצַבֵּיהֶם (ʿatsabbehem, “their idols”), from עָצָב (ʿatsav, “a shaped idol”), repeating the root that names the objects here. The next line says they have mouths but cannot speak, making the gap between a shaped image and living agency explicit.
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