What does the Bible say about pictures?
The Bible provides a lot of wisdom about images, unveiling God’s longing for your authentic worship and devotion. It speaks with clarity about the purpose, dangers, and spiritual weight of images, idols, and crafted objects, calling you to place the Lord at the center of your life. God’s Word lovingly urges you to turn from those stupid distractions and anchor your heart in the Creator who crafted you in His likeness. These teachings challenge you to reflect on your priorities, ensuring no desire, possession, or ambition eclipses God’s place in your life. As you draw near to Him, embrace His invitation to worship with sincerity and truth. This enduring guidance shields your heart from idolatry and fosters a profound connection with the One who loves you unconditionally. Let these insights shape your path as you pursue a life of wholehearted worship.
Exodus 20:4 (ESV)
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Deuteronomy 5:8 (NIV)
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
Leviticus 26:1 (NKJV)
“You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves, nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.”
Isaiah 44:9 (NASB)
“Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.”
Psalm 97:7 (KJV)
“Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.”
Habakkuk 2:18 (NLT)
“What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation—a god that can’t even talk!”
Jeremiah 10:14 (Holman CSB)
“Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.”
Acts 17:29 (ESV)
“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.”
Romans 1:23 (NIV)
“And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”
Isaiah 42:8 (NKJV)
“I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”
Deuteronomy 4:16 (NASB)
“So that you do not act corruptly and make a carved image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female.”
Psalm 115:4-5 (KJV)
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not.”
1 Corinthians 10:14 (NLT)
“So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.”
Exodus 34:17 (Holman CSB)
“Do not make cast images of gods for yourselves.”
Isaiah 40:18 (ESV)
“To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?”
Hosea 13:2 (NIV)
“Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen.”
Psalm 135:15-16 (NKJV)
“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see.”
Deuteronomy 27:15 (NASB)
“‘Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’”
Jeremiah 51:17 (KJV)
“Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.”
Revelation 9:20 (NLT)
“But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!”
2 Kings 17:12 (ESV)
“And they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, ‘You shall not do this.’”
Isaiah 45:16 (NIV)
“All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together.”
Micah 5:13 (NKJV)
“Your carved images I will also cut off, and your sacred pillars from your midst; you shall no more worship the work of your hands.”
Deuteronomy 7:25 (NASB)
“The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.”
Psalm 78:58 (KJV)
“For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.”
Ezekiel 6:4 (NLT)
“All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols.”
Judges 18:18 (Holman CSB)
“When these men went into Micah’s house and took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the silver idol, the priest said to them, ‘What are you doing?’”
1 John 5:21 (ESV)
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
2 Chronicles 34:7 (NIV)
“He tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 44:17 (NKJV)
“And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’”
Exodus 23:24 (NASB)
“You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces.”
Psalm 106:36 (KJV)
“And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.”
Jeremiah 8:19 (NLT)
“Listen to the weeping of my people; it can be heard all across the land. ‘Has the Lord abandoned Jerusalem?’ they ask. ‘Is her King no longer there?’ ‘Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols and their worthless foreign gods?’ says the Lord.”
1 Kings 14:9 (ESV)
“But you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back.”
Ezekiel 20:16 (NIV)
“Because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols.”
2 Corinthians 6:16 (NKJV)
“And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”
Deuteronomy 12:3 (NASB)
“You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.”
Psalm 16:4 (KJV)
“Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.”
Hosea 4:17 (NLT)
“Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!”
Isaiah 2:8 (Holman CSB)
“Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.”
Colossians 3:5 (ESV)
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
1 Samuel 15:23 (NIV)
“For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
Jonah 2:8 (NKJV)
“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.”
Exodus 32:4 (NASB)
“He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”
Psalm 135:18 (KJV)
“They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.”
Ezekiel 8:10 (NLT)
“So I went in and looked. There, carved on the walls, were pictures of all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures, along with all the idols of the people of Israel.”
2 Kings 21:11 (ESV)
“Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols.”
Isaiah 57:5 (NIV)
“You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.”
Deuteronomy 4:23 (NKJV)
“Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.”
Psalm 106:38 (NASB)
“And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood.”
Jeremiah 2:11 (KJV)
“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.”
Acts 19:26 (NLT)
“But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!”
1 Kings 11:5 (ESV)
“For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.”
Ezekiel 16:17 (NIV)
“You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.”
Psalm 81:9 (NKJV)
“There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.”
Isaiah 46:6 (NASB)
“Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; they bow down, indeed they worship it.”
Judges 17:4 (KJV)
“Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.”
Hosea 8:4 (NLT)
“The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my approval. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction.”
2 Chronicles 33:7 (ESV)
“And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.’”
Jeremiah 10:3-4 (NIV)
“For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”
Psalm 96:5 (NKJV)
“For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
Exodus 20:23 (NASB)
“You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.”
Isaiah 44:15 (KJV)
“Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.”
Ezekiel 7:20 (NLT)
“They were proud of their beautiful jewelry and used it to make detestable idols and vile images. Therefore, I will make all their wealth disgusting to them.”
Deuteronomy 9:12 (ESV)
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’”
Psalm 106:19 (NIV)
“At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal.”
Hosea 11:2 (NKJV)
“As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images.”
Isaiah 30:22 (NASB)
“And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, ‘Be gone!’”
2 Kings 17:16 (KJV)
“And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.”
Jeremiah 16:20 (NLT)
“Can people make their own gods? These are not real gods at all!”
1 Chronicles 16:26 (ESV)
“For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
Micah 1:7 (NIV)
“All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her temple gifts will be burned with fire; I will destroy all her images.”
Psalm 115:8 (NKJV)
“Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.”
Isaiah 41:29 (NASB)
“Behold, all of them are false; their works are worthless, their molten images are wind and emptiness.”
Ezekiel 14:3 (KJV)
“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?”
Hosea 9:10 (NLT)
“The Lord says, ‘O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol.’”
2 Chronicles 24:18 (ESV)
“And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.”
Jeremiah 11:12 (NIV)
“Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.”
Psalm 135:17 (NKJV)
“They have ears, but they do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths.”
Isaiah 46:1 (NASB)
“Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.”
Ezekiel 23:14 (ESV)
“But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion.”
