But they are altogether senseless and foolish: the stock [is] a (e) doctrine of vanities.
(e) Because the people thought that to have images was a means to serve God, and to bring them to the knowledge of him, he shows that nothing more displeases God, nor brings man into greater errors and ignorance of God: and therefore he calls them the doctrine of vanity, the work of errors, (Jeremiah 10:15). (Habakkuk 2:18) calls them the teachers of lies: contrary to that wicked opinion, that they are the books of the lay people.