Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version omit from this verse the repetitious expression their gods of wood, overlaid with gold and silver.

Good News Translation has restructured the first part of this verse in order to make the relation with verse 70 clear:

These gods … are about as helpful as a scarecrow … they are no protection at all.
They do as much good as a thorn bush … instead of keeping birds away, they provide a perch for them….

The phrase “instead of keeping birds away” makes clear the continuing comparison with the scarecrow that doesn’t scare anything away. The thorn bush could refer to any number of common spiny or thorn covered plants. The point of comparison lies in the fact that they are common but useless.

Like a dead body cast out in the darkness: The writer does not explain how the gods are like a dead body. Quite likely, he is bringing his denunciation of idols to a climax by comparing them to the vilest, most loathsome thing he can think of. He adds cast out in the darkness to stress his point. This means that the disrespected corpse is thrown out during the night, not that it is thrown out “into the darkness” (Good News Translation). So we may say “they are as loathsome [or, disgusting/repulsive] as a dead body thrown out during the night.” Compare Isa 34.3; Jer 14.16; 22.19; 1 Macc 11.4.

A possible alternative model for this verse is:

• Their wooden gods are all shiny with gold and silver, but they have no more use than a thorn bush in a garden; they are just another place for birds to perch. These gods are as loathsome as a dead body thrown out during the night.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.