These idols are compared to scarecrows in a cucumber field.
They cannot speak and they have to be carried everywhere because they cannot walk. Even though the comparison to a scarecrow is slightly obscure, it is certainly mocking. These man-made gods are both silent, as in a scarecrow that cannot even shout at the birds to scare them away, and they are not terrifying, even though they are meant to terrify the birds. The Hebrew root for walk
is tsaad, and means step or march and may very well refer to religious processions in which the gods had to be carried because they could not walk. The very religious activities that were meant to express worship for these gods displayed the powerlessness and emptiness of the gods.1 Idol worship encouraged the absurd and foolish practice of worshipping the powerless creation of the worshipper
s own hands.2
5 Ces dieux sont comme une colonne massive, et ils ne parlent point; On les porte, parce qu'ils ne peuvent marcher. Ne les craignez pas, car ils ne sauraient faire aucun mal, Et ils sont incapables de faire du bien.