Translations
For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
For all the elohim of the peoples are elilim—worthless nothings—yet YHWH made the skies.
For all the gods of the peoples are mere empty idols, but Yahweh is the One who made the heavens.
For all the gods of the nations are idols, but it is the LORD who made the heavens.
Footnotes
Elilim is a devastating pun on elohim (gods): it means "worthless things, nothings, nobodies." The wordplay unmasks the nations' gods—they wear the title elohim but are exposed as elilim. The contrast is then cosmological: Yahweh made the shamayim (skies/heavens), while the "gods" made nothing at all. F.O.G. retains elilim untranslated to honor the wordplay; F.O.G.M. renders "empty idols" to land the force in English, while "the One who made the heavens" draws the creator-contrast starkly.

