| 1 | Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O people of Israel: |
| 2 | This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them. |
| 3 | For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe. |
| 4 | They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved. |
| 5 | It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good. |
| 6 | There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power. |
| 7 | Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. |
| 8 | But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood. |
| 9 | Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing, all the work of expert men. |
| 10 | But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath. |
| 11 | This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens. |
| 12 | He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out. |
| 13 | At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses. |
| 14 | Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them. |
| 15 | They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them. |
| 16 | The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name. |
| 17 | Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town. |
| 18 | For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that they will be conscious of it. |
| 19 | Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free from it. |
| 20 | My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains. |
| 21 | For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight. |
| 22 | News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals. |
| 23 | O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps. |
| 24 | O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small. |
| 25 | Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste. |
