"Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good." ~ Jeremiah 10:5 (NASB)
(Interestingly, the author is speaking not only about idols in general but about one specific idol that still exists to this day: The dead tree, festooned with decorations but with no power of its own.)
On a related note, I genuinely like the following excerpt from a madrash, Genesis Rabbah 38:13:
Terah was an idol manufacturer who once went away and left Abraham in charge of the store. A man walked in and wished to buy an idol. Abraham asked him how old he was and the man responded “fifty years old.” Abraham then said, “You are fifty years old and would worship a day old statue!” At this point the man left ashamed.
Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. When Terah returned he asked Abraham what happened to all the idols. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. Then the idols argued about which one should eat the offering first. Then the largest idol took the stick and smashed the other idols.
Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. Whereupon Abraham responded by saying that you deny their knowledge, yet you worship them!
The moral of this story: Idols are dumb, deaf, blind - inanimate. The problem Biblical authors (and their muse, the creator) have is not primarily with those who possess idols but rather with people who worship and sacrifice and pay obeisance to thing lacking anima.
Rather than flatly condemning idol worship - although one of the Ten Commandments does condemn the creation of graven images - Jeremiah, in the Bible; and Abraham in the midrash both point out idols are neither to be loved nor feared because they have no power at all,
