In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

ISAIAH 2:20KJV
Know the Bible

Isaiah 2:20 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 2:20 mean?

Isaiah 2:20 pictures people abandoning the valuable objects they had made for worship. When the day Isaiah describes arrives, even idols made of silver and gold are thrown away, showing how completely the people’s regard for them has changed.

The moles and bats suggest dark, abandoned places. After the people hide from the Lord’s terror in verse 19, Isaiah’s image places their treasured idols among creatures associated with such places.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 2:20

  • “idols” — אֱלִילִים (ʾelilim): This word refers to idols and carries a sense of worthlessness. The word sets the objects’ lack of worth beside the precious metals used to make them.

  • “worship” — שָׁחָה (shachah): This word can mean to bow down or bend low. It gives a physical picture of how people showed honor to the objects they had made.

Why Isaiah 2:20 matters

  • The verse connects the idols with human making as well as human worship. The phrase “which they made each one for himself” draws attention to the people’s part in creating the objects they later discard.

  • The costly materials make the change especially striking. “Silver” and “gold” normally suggest wealth, yet these objects are cast away rather than kept.

  • The verse belongs to a scene of fear, not a calm sorting of possessions. The neighboring verses describe people hiding “for fear of the LORD” and “for the glory of his majesty” (Isaiah 2:19, 21).

Where else these words appear

“bats” Hebrew H5847 · used in 3 verses

  • Leviticus 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
  • Deuteronomy 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

“idols” Hebrew H457 · used in 18 verses

  • Leviticus 19:4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.
  • Psalms 97:7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
  • Isaiah 19:3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

“cast” Hebrew H7993 · used in 121 verses

  • Genesis 21:15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
  • 2 Kings 2:16 And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
  • Isaiah 19:8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.