Jeremiah 10

¹Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: ²thus saith Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³For the customs of the peoples are vanity; 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 like a palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

⁶There is none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. ⁷Who should not fear thee, O King of the nations? for to thee doth it appertain; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto thee. ⁸But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men. ¹⁰But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.

¹¹Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

¹²He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. ¹³When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up thy wares out of the land, O thou that abidest in the siege. ¹⁸For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.

¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²²The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

²³O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. ²⁴O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.