Since they are made of wood and overlaid with gold and silver: The use of the word Since results in the peculiar thought that if the idols were not made of wood, that is, if they were made of something else, then they might not be proved false. Good News Translation is a better rendering: “These idols are nothing more than wood covered with silver and gold” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

It will afterward be known that they are false: The word afterward also raises the question, “after what?” The Greek is literally “after these things,” which is a common idiom; here it means just what Good News Translation says, “one day” (Contemporary English Version “Someday”) in the sense of “sooner or later,” “in the end.” The Good News Translation translation of false as “really not gods at all” expresses the sense very well.

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.