1Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh
unto you, O house of Israel:
2Thus saith 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.
3For the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth
a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of
the workman, with the axe.
4They deck it with silver and with gold; they
fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move
not.
5They 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.
6Forasmuch as there
is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great,
and thy name is great
in might.
7Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among
all the wise men of
the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there
is none like unto thee.
8But they are altogether brutish and foolish:
the stock is a
doctrine of vanities.
9Silver 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.
10But 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.
11Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that
have not made the heavens and the earth, even they
shall perish from the earth, and from under these
heavens.
12He hath made the earth by his power, he
hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath
stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13When he uttereth his voice, there
is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he
causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the
earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth
forth the wind out of his treasures.
14Every 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.
15They are vanity, and the
work of errors: in the time of their visitation they
shall perish.
16The 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.
17Gather up thy wares out of the land, O
inhabitant of the fortress.
18For thus saith 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.
19Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is
grievous: but I said, Truly this is a
grief, and I must bear it.
20My 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.
21For the pastors are become brutish, and
have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not
prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
22Behold, 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.
23O LORD, I know that the way of man is not
in himself: it
is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
24O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not
in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
25Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that
know thee not, and upon the families that call not
on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and
devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his
habitation desolate.