Those who serve them are ashamed: The clause, those who serve them, is perhaps better expressed as “those [or, the people] who worship them” rather than “those who take care of them” (Good News Translation). The Greek refers to those who are in attendance on the idols. Ashamed is not quite the right shade of meaning here. If an idol falls over, those in attendance are “embarrassed” (Good News Translation) or made uncomfortable. New Jerusalem Bible says “It is humiliating for their worshippers,” but this may be too strong. From the viewpoint of someone who does not take images seriously, it may be humiliating, but for the worshipers it is probably no more than an embarrassment.

Because through them these gods are made to stand, lest they fall to the ground: Note that these gods is literally “they” (Revised Standard Version footnote), but Revised Standard Version spells out the pronoun for clarity. Good News Translation expresses the clauses here as “when one of their gods falls to the ground and has to be picked up again.” The Greek can also be understood as follows: “because they have to prop their gods up, to keep them from falling to the ground.” Good News Translation “picked up” is appropriate for images that were small enough to handle. Some were. Others, however, were life-size, and this seems to be in mind here, since we are talking about idols that have been set up within a temple. Verse 33 certainly suggests life-size images. The verb Good News Translation has translated “picked up” could as easily be rendered “set upright.”

If it is tipped over, it cannot straighten itself: This line may have a bit of irony: “It can’t even straighten itself up if it’s only leaning a bit.” Contemporary English Version says “Even if an idol starts to lean, it cannot straighten itself up.”

But gifts are placed before them just as before the dead: The connector but expresses a contrast between the fact that the idols cannot even move and the fact that people bring gifts to them. The interpretation of Revised Standard Version (not much different in New Revised Standard Version) here is difficult to understand. It seems to be saying that even though idols can’t walk or get up if they fall, people bring them gifts, just like they do to the dead—in which giving gifts to the dead seems a good thing to do. But making gifts to the dead was condemned in Israel; compare Deut 26.14; Sir 30.18. (On the other hand, see Tob 4.17.) However, the point the writer is making seems to have nothing to do with the question of whether making offerings to the dead was proper. He is just saying it was useless. We may express this as “Bringing gifts to idols is like bringing them to dead people” (similarly Good News Translation) or “But people bring gifts to idols, which is as useless as bringing them to dead people.”

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.