Idols—whether made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, or wood—are simply “the works of their hands.” That is true in the sense that human hands construct idols (see Exodus 32:4; Isaiah 44:9–17). Yet behind the labour of hands is the labour of one’s imagination. You imagine a god to have particular characteristics or attributes and then you depict those attributes in how you fashion your idol with your hands. But the resulting product is still only the raw materials you used, whether expensive or cheap (gold or stone), hard to shape or easy (stone or wood).
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,