Elil: WORTHLESS

Worthless or worthless thing, aka “idol”: elil, masculine adjective (Strong’s 457).

Root: אֱלִיל 

Sounds like: El’eel

Idolatry was a big topic in the Hebrew Bible, so it’s not surprising that there were many words used to describe idols. Elil was one of those words. Primarily it meant “worthless” or a “worthless thing” and so elil was sometimes used to represent an idol.

Elil became a synonym for the word idol but in its original context it could be applied to anything that was without worth or value. Here are a few examples that have nothing to do with idols:

Zechariah 11:17a

“Woe to the worthless [ha-elil  הָֽאֱלִיל֙] shepherd who abandons the flock!”

Job 13:4

[Job, regarding his friends:] “But you smear me with lies; you are all worthless [elil אֱלִ֣ל] physicians.”

Jeremiah 14:13-14

But I said, “Oh, Lord YHWH! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see a sword, nor will you have famine; on the contrary, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’” 

Then YHWH said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility worthless things [wey-elil וֶֽאֱלִיל֙], and the deception of their own minds.

Elil is something that is worthless, useless, futile. When authors began to use this word to describe an idol, it was a clever literary move. The word elil begins with the two letters that spell out the word for “god” (El). This was a cheeky nod to a god that was not God. It was just a thing without any value.

Psalm 97:7

May all those be ashamed who serve carved images, who boast in idols worthless things (gods that are not Gods) [ba-elilim בָּאֱלִילִ֑ים]. Worship Him, all you gods!

 

The poet here, called on these gods who are not God to worship the God of all things… even things of no value. These worthless things could only gain value as followers of YHWH.

Leviticus 19:4

Do not turn to idols the worthless things [ha-elilim: הָ֣אֱלִילִ֔ים] or make for yourselves cast metal gods; I am YHWH your God. 

Leviticus 26:1

“You shall not make for yourselves idols worthless things (gods that are not God) [elilim אֱלִילִ֗ם], nor shall you set up for yourselves a carved image or a memorial stone, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am YHWH your God.”

 

1 Chronicles 16:25-27 (repeated in Psalm 96:4-6)

[David:] For great is YHWH, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols worthless things (gods that are not God) [elilim אֱלִילִ֔ים], but YHWH made the heavens. Splendour and majesty are before Him, strength and joy are in His place.

This word shows up most prominently in the second chapter of Isaiah:

Isaiah 2:7-8, 17-20

[Regarding Judah/Jerusalem:] Their land has also been filled with silver and gold and there is no end to their treasures; their land has also been filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land has also been filled with idols worthless things [elilim אֱלִילִ֑ים]; they worship the work of their hands, that which their fingers have made…

…And the pride of humanity will be humbled and the arrogance of people will be brought low; and YHWH alone will be exalted on that day,

And the idols worthless things [w-ha-elilim וְהָאֱלִילִ֖ים] will completely vanish.

People will go into caves of the rocks and into holes in the ground away from the terror of YHWH and the splendour of His majesty, when He arises to terrify the earth.

On that day people will throw away, to the moles and the bats, their idols worthless things [et eliley אֵ֚ת אֱלִילֵ֣י] of silver and their idols worthless things [w-et eliley וְאֵ֖ת אֱלִילֵ֣י] of gold, which they made for themselves to worship.

Silver and gold things are hardly worthless by human standards, but these things were made futile or useless because they were things of no worth to the human experience. They may have a high price tag but they were of no real value.

Isaiah 31:6-7

Return to Him against whom you have been profoundly obstinate, you sons of Israel. For on that day every person will reject his idols [eliley אֱלִילֵ֣י] of silver and his idols [wey-eliley וֶאֱלִילֵ֖י] of gold, which your hands have made for you as a sin.

The idea of worthless things of silver and gold seems like an oxymoron… but that’s the point. To God, these metals (gold and silver) have no more worth than a beautiful flower or a blade of grass, a fluttering butterfly or a shiny snowflake. We place comparative value on things, but it’s a human construct. Who decided gold was worth more than the soil that nurtures our food? Similarly we place comparative value on humans. We rate people according to their class, wealth, and appearance. These rating systems have no worth or value in the eyes of God. They are ridiculous human constructs… much like idols were ridiculous human constructs:

Isaiah 10:10-11

[YHWH:] “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols worthless things [ha-elil הָאֱלִ֑יל], whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do the same to Jerusalem and her images just as I have done to Samaria and her idols worthless things [w-ley-elileyha וְלֶאֱלִילֶ֑יהָ]?”

It wasn’t just Israel that had issues with idols. Egypt was full of worthless things. They placed value on trinkets more than human life and God was not pleased about it:

Isaiah 19:1-3

The pronouncement concerning Egypt:

Behold, YHWH is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; (the) idols worthless things [eliley אֱלִילֵ֤י] of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

[YHWH:] So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; and they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbour, city against city and kingdom against kingdom.

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; and I will confuse their strategy, so that they will resort to the idols worthless things [ha-eliliem הָֽאֱלִילִים֙] and ghosts of the dead, and to mediums and spiritists.

First they placed their hope in idols and worthless things, and when that didn’t work they turned to ghosts, mediums, and spiritists. But there was no value in any of their words; they were worthless physicians or worthless shepherds (as Job or Zechariah might say).

Ezekiel only used elil once in Ezekiel 30:13, and Habakkuk also only used elil once, but when he did he played with the word to give it an extra umph in the following passage:

Habakkuk 2:18-20

“What benefit is a carved image when its maker has carved it, or a cast metal image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols worthless things [elilim אֱלִילִ֥ים].

Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ That is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath at all inside it. But YHWH is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Habakkuk’s phrase “speechless worthless things”, or perhaps more accurately, “worthless things (that are) mute”, is a bit of a tongue twister. The phrase, in Hebrew, is elilim il’mim (el’ee’leem eel’meem), and that would have stood out to the reader and/or the listener. Worthless and speechless sound alike but they also have similar downfalls. When there is no worth and there are no words, what is left? A whole lot of nothing. These people, who were carving these idols, were creating a whole lot of nothing.

Handmade idols were of no real value, outside of what humans placed upon them. God desperately wanted humans to understand that the real value in life was breath, and spirit, and God’s goodness. We are God’s idols (image bearers) made of flesh and blood, with the breath of God within us. Idols of wood and metal were made to house the essence of the gods, so that people had something tangible to pray to… but we humans are real, living, beings that house the essence of God through the Spirit. We are the ones who are supposed to reflect God’s essence to the world by our kind words and loving actions. We are the tangible things that others can reach out to, when they need God’s intervention.

God sees each and every one of us as priceless and of great worth. Our value, in His eyes, is so astronomically high that it is unimaginable by human understanding, and yet we get a glimpse of just how much He values us when Yeshua went to the cross to die for us. We are deserving of His love and sacrifice because, according to the One who created us, we are worth the cost.

Next week: Sermon for Mother’s Day