Having no feet: This means the images have no real feet, no feet that actually can move and walk. They could in fact have feet. “They can’t walk on their own feet” (Good News Translation) is a helpful alternative translation.

They are carried on men’s shoulders: This probably refers to images being carried aloft in sacred processions by men carrying poles on their shoulders, the poles in turn being part of a device supporting the image. (The drawing illustrating this verse in Good News Translation is misleading.) See verse 4, and compare Isa 46.7.

Revealing to mankind their worthlessness: This is a conclusion drawn from the fact that idols are unable to move. Revised Standard Version renders it literally. Good News Translation effectively restructures the verse so that this conclusion becomes a forcefully made point to be illustrated by the idols’ inability to move. Good News Translation might have gained slightly by rendering “See how worthless…” since the idea of being worthless is in view in the context of people paying great prices for them (verse 25). “High price … worthless” is a better contrasting pair than “high price … useless”; the Greek words involved are from the same root, so the author clearly has this comparison in mind.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.