The smith with the tongs. The Hebrew text is defective, some word having fallen out. We should probably supply "maketh," and translate, The smith maketh an axe, and worketh it in the coals, and with hammers fashioneth it.
The description of image-making thus commences with the fashioning of the carpenter's tools. He is hungry, etc. The artificer who takes the first step in "forming a god" (Isaiah 44:10) is himself hungry and thirsty, depending on so mean a thing as food to supply him with the needful strength.
Unless he can cat and drink, the whole work is brought to a standstill.