| 1 | Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! |
| 2 | Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. |
| 3 | For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. |
| 4 | They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. |
| 5 | They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good." |
| 6 | There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might. |
| 7 | Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you. |
| 8 | But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. |
| 9 | There 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 skillful men. |
| 10 | But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation. |
| 11 | You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. |
| 12 | He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: |
| 13 | when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. |
| 14 | Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. |
| 15 | They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. |
| 16 | The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name. |
| 17 | Gather up your wares out of the land, you who live under siege. |
| 18 | For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it. |
| 19 | Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it. |
| 20 | My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. |
| 21 | For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. |
| 22 | The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals. |
| 23 | Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. |
| 24 | Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. |
| 25 | Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation. |
