elil · worthless things, idols

What it means

elil (אֱלִיל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “worthless things, idols”.

Idols; the word calls them "worthless things". It also means worthless, of no value.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. False gods worth nothing, made by human hands.
2. Something good for nothing, worthless.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• idols ×16
• idol ×1
• no worth ×1
• who is worth nothing ×1
• worthless thing ×1

Where it appears

• Leviticus×2
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Leviticus 19:4

  Do not turn to idols, and gods of cast metal you shall not make for yourselves. I am YHWH your Elohim.

• Leviticus 26:1

  You shall not make idols for yourselves, and you shall not set up for yourselves a carved image or a standing stone, and you shall not put a sculpted stone in your land to bow down on it; for I am YHWH your Elohim.

• 1 Chronicles 16:26

  For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but YHWH made the heavens.

• Job 13:4

  But you are those who plaster over with lies; physicians of no worth are all of you.

• Psalms 96:5

  For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but YHWH made the heavens.

• Psalms 97:7

  Let all who serve a carved image be put to shame, who boast in idols; bow down to him, all you gods!

• Isaiah 2:8

  Their land has been filled with idols; to the work of their hands they bow down, to what their fingers have made.

• Isaiah 2:18

  And the idols will pass away completely.

• Isaiah 2:20

  On that day human beings will throw away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to bow down to, to the moles and to the bats,

• Isaiah 10:10

  As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idol, and their carved images were more than those of Jerusalem and of Samaria,

• Isaiah 10:11

  shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and to her idols, so do to Jerusalem and to her idols?”

• Isaiah 19:1

  The burden of Egypt. Look, YHWH is riding on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the heart of Egypt melts within it.

• Isaiah 19:3

  And the spirit of Egypt will be emptied out within it, and its counsel I will swallow up; and they will consult the idols and the charmers and those who call up the dead and the spiritists.

• Isaiah 31:7

  For on that day they will reject, each one, his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you, a sin.

• Jeremiah 14:14

  And YHWH said to me: “Falsehood the prophets are prophesying in my name; I did not send them, nor command them, nor speak to them; a vision of falsehood, and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart they are prophesying to you.

• Ezekiel 30:13

  Thus says Adonai YHWH: I will make the idols perish, and I will put an end to the idols from Memphis; and there will no longer be a chief from the land of Egypt, and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

• Habakkuk 2:18

  What does a carved image profit when its maker has carved it, a cast image and a teacher of falsehood, that the maker of his work trusts in it, to make mute idols?

• Zechariah 11:17

  Woe to the shepherd who is worth nothing, who abandons the sheep! A sword on his arm and on his right eye; his arm will completely wither, and his right eye will utterly grow dim.”

And 2 more times.