they could

Isaiah 36:18, 19
Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? . . .

Isaiah 37:12, 19
Did the gods of the nations my fathers destroyed rescue them--the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar? . . .

Isaiah 44:17
From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, "Save me, for you are my god."

Isaiah 45:20
Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives of the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.

but

Judges 18:17, 18, 24
while the five men who had gone to scout out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men. . . .

2 Samuel 5:21
There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.

Jeremiah 43:12, 13
I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed. . . .

Jeremiah 48:7
Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.

themselves are.