The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.
The smith with the tongs - rather, as the Chaldaic, 'The smith (prepareth) an axe' ( ma`ªtsaad (H4621)); namely, with which to cut down the tree designed as the material of the idol. The "smith" (Hebrew, chaarash (H2796) barzel (H1270), workman in iron) here answers to the "carpenter" (Hebrew, workman in wood). "He worketh it (the axe, not the idol, which was wood, not metal) in the coals,' etc. The axe was worked, not cast. The smith makes the axe for the carpenter (cf. Jeremiah 10:3).
Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water - so eager is he to expedite his work while the iron is hot. If the god were worth anything, it would not let him grow "faint" with hunger and thirst. Williams, the missionary, states, that the South Sea islanders when they make an idol abstain from food and drink.