“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in its midst.
⛓ Read Habakkuk 2 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
The dumb idol that cannot teach, the woe to one who says to a mute stone 'Awake,' undergirds Paul's phrase 'mute idols.' Habakkuk stresses that there is no breath/spirit in the idol, which sharpens Paul's contrast with the speaking, Spirit-empowered confession 'Jesus is Lord' that follows.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a teacher of lies, woe to him who says to wood Awake; the futility of the crafted image the maker trusts. Coheres with the made-with-hands theme. Contested.
Medium confidence