What are the "customs of the nations" mentioned in Jeremiah 10:3?

Setting the Scene

The Lord is speaking through Jeremiah to a nation flirting with the worship practices they see all around them.

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The Key Text (Jeremiah 10:2-5)

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Do not learn the way of the nations

or be terrified by signs in the heavens,

though the nations are terrified by them.

For the customs of the peoples are worthless:

They cut down a tree from the forest;

a craftsman shapes it with a chisel.

They adorn it with silver and gold

and fasten it with hammer and nails

so that it will not totter.

Like scarecrows in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak;

they must be carried because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them, for they can do no harm,

and neither can they do any good.’”

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What the “Customs of the Nations” Involve

• Cutting a tree and dragging the log from the forest

• Hiring a skilled artisan to carve that wood into a religious image

• Overlaying or plating the idol with precious metals—silver and gold—for beauty and prestige

• Nailing the figure to a base so it stands upright and doesn’t topple

• Setting it up in a shrine, bowing, praying, burning incense, and seeking protection from it

• Reading “signs in the heavens” (v. 2)—astrology and divination tied to those idols

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Why God Calls These Customs “Worthless”

• The idols have mouths but “cannot speak” (v. 5; cf. Psalm 115:4-7).

• They need to be “carried” because they are powerless to move (cf. Isaiah 46:6-7).

• They inspire fear based on superstition, not on the character of the living God.

• They divert hearts from the Lord who alone “made the earth by His power” (Jeremiah 10:12).

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Other Passages That Echo the Same Warning

• Isaiah 40:18-20; 44:9-17—mockery of carving wood into gods

• Habakkuk 2:18-19—“Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’”

• 1 Samuel 12:21—“Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit.”

• 1 Corinthians 10:19-22—idolatry invites fellowship with demons, not merely wood and stone.

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Takeaways for Today

• Any object, practice, or philosophy that tries to replace God’s rightful rule is modern idolatry.

• Cultural popularity does not sanctify a custom; the measure is always, “Does it honor the Lord?”

• Fear-driven rituals—astrology, talismans, charms—contradict trust in God’s sovereign care.

• Only the Creator deserves worship; everything else we make with our own hands is, in the end, “worthless.”