The prophet now asks a rhetorical question: if idols cannot bring any benefit to their makers and worshipers, who would be foolish enough to make one and worship it? This is an emphatic statement that hints strongly at the sheer stupidity of making a useless image. For languages that prefers a strong statement here, see Good News Translation and the second example below.

Who fashions a god or casts an image…? is a double question. Translators may repeat the interrogative pronoun Who. The Hebrew verb rendered fashions is the same one used in the previous verse, where it is translated “makes.” The Hebrew noun for god is ʾel, which is the general term for the deity. Here it refers to an idol since it is parallel to the Hebrew word for image, which is the same term rendered “idols” in the previous verse. Casts an image means makes an idol by pouring molten metal into a mold (see the comments on 40.19).

That is profitable for nothing describes the idol as useless. This repeats the idea expressed in the previous verse, where it says idols “do not profit.” Good News Translation places this clause at the beginning of the verse, saying “It does no good.”

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Who would make a god or cast an image that is of no benefit to them?

• Surely nobody would make a god or cast an image that is totally useless!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .