to do or make · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
earth
אֶ֙רֶץ֙'e.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
power
בְּכֹח֔וֹbe.kho.Cho
H3581
vigor · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
established
מֵכִ֥יןme.Khin
H3559
properly · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
world
תֵּבֵ֖לte.Vel
H8398
the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
wisdom
בְּחָכְמָת֑וֹbe.cha.khe.ma.To
H2451
wisdom (in a good sense) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
out
נָטָ֥הna.Tah
H5186
to stretch or spread out · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heavens
שָׁמָֽיִםsha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · noun, common masculine plural absolute
discretion
וּבִתְבוּנָת֖וֹu.vit.vu.na.To
H8394
intelligence · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.
Proverbs 3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a cu…
Psalms 24:2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,…
Job 38:4-7 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 10:1-16
The prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied of the captivity in Babylon, added warnings against idolatry and largely exposed the sottishness of idolaters, not only because the temptations in Babylon would be in danger of drawing the Jews there to idolatry, but because the afflictions in Babylon were designed to cure them of their idolatry. Thus the prophet Jeremiah here arms people against the idolatrous usages and customs of the heathen, not only for the use of those that had gone to Babylon, but of those also that staid behind, that being convinced and reclaimed, by the word of God, the rod might be prevented; and it is written for our learning. Observe here,
I. A solemn charge given to the peo…
Continuation of Jer 10:10, after the interruption of the thread of the discourse in Jer 10:11 (Psa 136:5-6).
John Gill on Jeremiah 10:12
He hath made the earth by his power,.... The Targum considers these words as a continuation of the answer of the Jews to the Chaldeans, paraphrasing them thus,
"and so shall ye say unto them, `we worship him who hath made the earth by his power':''
who stands opposed to the gods that made not the heavens and the earth, that had no title to deity, nor right to worship; but the true God has both; and his making the earth out of nothing, and hanging it upon nothing, and preserving it firm and stable, are proofs of his almighty power, and so of his deity; and consequently that he ought to be worshipped, and he only.
He hath established the world by his wisdom; upon the rivers and floods; or h…
Jeremiah 10:12-13
12. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
12. Faciens terram in virtute sua, disponens orbem in sapientia sua, et in sua intelligentia extendit coelos.
13. When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
13. Ad vocem dando sonitum aquarum (vel potius copiam aquarum) in coelis; et ascendere faciens elevationes ab extremitate terrae, fulgura ad pluviam creans (faciens, ut prius,) et educens ventum e thesa…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12.) The one who made the earth in his strength, who established the world in his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens in his understanding. He who makes the earth by His power, He is God the Father. But He also makes by His power the Lord the Savior. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). He Himself is both wisdom and the one by whom the heavens are stretched out. For He Himself spoke and they were made; He Himself commanded and they were created (Psalm 33:9); speaking to the Son: Let us make man in our image, and according to our likeness (Genesis 1:26).
The prophet of God, having taken up as it were three excellences of His—His strength, His wisdom, and His understanding—assigns to each of them a work proper to it: to the strength the earth, to the wisdom the inhabited world, and to the understanding the heaven. For listen to the passage as it says: "The Lord who made the earth in His strength, who set upright the inhabited world in His wisdom, and in His understanding stretched out the heaven." And we too, as regards our earth (for it was said to Adam, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart"), have need of the strength of God, and apart from the power of God we are not able to accomplish these things, all that is not according to "the mind-set of the flesh." And when "the members that are upon the earth" have been put to death, then there will be what is according to the will of the Spirit, since "by the Spirit the deeds of the flesh," according to the apostle, are put to death. "The Lord," then, "who made the earth in His strength." And if you come also to this earth, if you are able to see what is written in Job, as we found in the more accurate copies, that He set it "upon nothing," you will see that by the strength of God it lies at the very midmost point. I come also to the inhabited world. I know of a soul that is inhabited, I know of a soul that is desolate. For if it does not have God, if it does not have Christ, who said, "I and my Father will come to him, and we will make our abode with him," if a soul does not have the Holy Spirit, it is desolate. But it is inhabited when it has been filled with God, when it has Christ, when the Holy Spirit is in it. And these things are said in the Scriptures in various and diverse ways—that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are in the soul of a human being. David, at any rate, in the psalm of confession, asks the Father concerning these spirits, saying: "With a governing spirit uphold me," "renew an upright spirit in my inward parts," "and take not your Holy Spirit from me." What are these three spirits? The governing one is the Father, the upright one is Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit—these to establish that the inhabited world is inhabited in no other way than in the wisdom of God. For "wisdom will help the wise man more than ten rulers who are in the city." "But he who despises wisdom and instruction is wretched, and his…
Dictionary and topics
Creation — “In the beginning” God created, i.e., called into being, all things out of nothing. This creative act on the part of God was absolutely free, and for infinitely wise reasons. The cause of all things…
Earth · CREATED BY GOD — CREATED BY GOD
Power Of God, The · Exhibited in: Creation — Exhibited in: Creation
Wisdom Of God, The · Exhibited in: His works — Exhibited in: His works
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Warning against idolatry by means of a view of the nothingness of the false gods (Jer 10:1-5), and a counter-view of the almighty and everlasting God (Jer 10:6-11) and of His governing care in the natural world. This warning is but a further continuation of the idea of Jer 9:23, that Israel's glory should consist in Jahveh who doth grace, right, and justice upon earth. In order thoroughly to impress this truth on the backsliding and idolatrous people, Jeremiah sets forth the nullity of the gods feared by the heathen, and, by showing how these gods are made of wood, plated with silver and gold, proves that these dead idols, which have neither life nor motion, cannot be objects of fear; wherea…
This stanza contains several strong affirmations of God’s nature.
10:12 Jeremiah affirmed that the Lord’s power, wisdom, and understanding are the attributes with which he creates and sustains creation.
