They are made by carpenters and goldsmiths: Compare Isa 40.19; Jer 10.9. Good News Translation renders this clause in the active voice, saying “Woodworkers and goldsmiths make these gods.” This makes for a simpler statement, and also preserves the emphasis of the Greek text, which is on “woodworkers and goldsmiths.” “These gods” does not appear in the Greek, although translation must of course make clear what is being referred to, particularly at the beginning of the new paragraph. “Woodworkers” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) is more appropriate than carpenters, who are mostly associated with building large structures. The writer is referring to artisans or craftspeople who are artists with wood and gold: “Artists working with wood and gold fashion these idols.”

They can be nothing but what the craftsmen wish them to be: Good News Translation is correct in rendering “so they can never be anything other than what these people want them to be.” We can suggest as a model here, “So they can never be anything more than what these people have in mind” or “so the idols always turn out to be exactly what the workers want” (Contemporary English Version).

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.