been banned, but this had little effect on the religious imagination of Old Testament writers, including “Deutero-Isaiah”: verbal images of God as king, shepherd, lion, father, mother, etc, are integral to Old Testament theology. On the other hand, the objection to an idol is that it can become an end in itself: the craftsmen in this chapter cannot see beyond the object they have made to what it represents. Or, at any rate, the prophet cannot see beyond the object; and for him the use of idols