---
title: Jeremiah 10:3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-10-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-10-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jeremiah 10:3
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jeremiah 10:3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "For the customs of the peoples are a delusion. It is just a tree of the forest that is cut down, worked by the hands of the craftsman with his tool."

## JW Usage

The flagship rs proof-text for the JW prohibition on Christmas trees. Reasoning From the Scriptures argues that Jeremiah 10:3-4 — a tree cut from the forest, worked by a craftsman, decorated with silver and gold — is a prophetic warning against Christmas trees. The verse is read as if Jeremiah were describing a sixteenth-century Lutheran-German custom twenty-one centuries before it appeared.

## Protestant Usage

Read to verse five. Jeremiah is describing a Babylonian cult statue, not a decorated evergreen — feet that cannot walk, mouth that cannot speak, metal plating, textile clothing, carried in procession, consulted for guidance. Verses 9 and 14-15 confirm the picture: silver from Tarshish, gold from Uphaz, blue and purple textile, "a metal image," "a delusion." This is the same idol Isaiah 44:9-20 mocks at greater length. Lit indoor Christmas trees did not appear until around AD 1539 in Strasbourg; no Old Testament prophet delivers a warning whose referent is invisible to their audience for two thousand years. Pair the verse with Romans 14:5-6 in the NWT — Paul's own ruling on festival liberty in the JW's own translation.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Holidays Are Not Pagan — Read Jeremiah 10 to Verse 5](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Colossians 2:16-17 / Jeremiah 10:5 [Practice]