“The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.”
The continuation describing carpentry—'The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with calipers; he shapes it to a human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine'—details the technical process of creating a wooden idol. The precision of measurement and crafting contrasts with the artificiality of the result: human skill creates an image of humanity, but no spark of life follows. The designation of the shrine as the idol's dwelling suggests the religious devotion lavished on what is ultimately wood. This verse's technical detail exposes how mechanical and empty idol-production truly is.
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