Since a new section begins here, the connector For at the beginning of this verse may be omitted.

Why should they be called gods?: In verse 29 the writer has said “from these things you know they aren’t gods.” Now he asks (in different words) “from what things can they be called gods?” What evidence is there that these idols are gods? The Greek verb form used here is the optative mode, which is used to speak of possibilities thought of as far-fetched. Here is where Good News Translation gets its rendering “How can they ever be called gods.” Good News Translation (also Contemporary English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Moore) connects this far-fetched notion to the next idea: What kind of god would ever accept anything from a woman?

Women serve meals for gods of silver and gold and wood: This says much more than the Greek, which simply says that “women set before gods….” The Greek may refer to meals, but not necessarily; it can just as easily describe any kind of offerings brought to the gods. The text does not actually say that the women are serving as priests. However, verses 30-32 can be understood as describing a ritual practice in which women “make offerings” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) while the priests sit around wailing. But this is not clear.

Contemporary English Version restructures the clauses in verse 30 as follows:

• How could these idols of silver and gold and wood ever be gods, when women are allowed to make offerings to them?

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.