[1] Hear you the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel:
[2] Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
[3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
[4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
[5] They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
[6] For as much as there is none like to you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.
[7] Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you does it appertain: for as much as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like to you.
[8] But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
[9] Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
[10] But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
[11] Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
[12] He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
[13] When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.
[14] Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
[15] They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
[16] The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name. ¶
[17] Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
[18] For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so. ¶
[19] Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
[20] My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
[21] For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
[22] Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons. ¶
[23] O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.
[24] O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
[25] Pour out your fury on the heathen that know you not, and on the families that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.