Habakkuk says an idol is taught by its maker, but it is a mute image and cannot speak. He pronounces woe on the one who says to wood and stone, “Awake” and “Arise,” because there is no breath in it. This is in Habakkuk 2:18–19.
In Habakkuk 2:18–20 the prophet mocks and condemns idols as human-made objects that cannot speak or give life. He asks what benefit an image has when its maker both creates it and then relies on it, even though it is “mute.” A “woe” is pronounced on anyone who commands wood or stone to wake up and teach. These verses conclude the series of “woe” announcements in Habakkuk 2 that target oppressive power and its corrupt practices (2:6–20). The earlier lines expose violence, exploitation, and arrogant self-security; the ending turns to the deepest irony behind such arrogance: trusting in man-made gods.
Habakkuk 2:18–20 closes the “woe” section by exposing the inner logic of idol-trust as self-defeating. The text’s explicit contrast is simple: idols are human-made, speechless, and lifeless, while Yahweh is present and authoritative.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Habakkuk 2:18-19, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
18"What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
19Woe to him who says to the wood, `Awake!` or to the mute stone, `Arise!` Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.