- 1
- Hear the word that Jehovah speaketh unto you, house of Israel.
- 2
- Thus saith Jehovah: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens;
for the nations are dismayed at them.
- 3
- For the statutes of the peoples are vanity;
for [it is] a tree cut out of the forest, worked with a chisel by the hands of the artizan;
- 4
- they deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
- 5
- They are as a palm-column of turned work, and they speak not;
they are carried, for they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
- 6
- There is none like unto thee, Jehovah;
thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
- 7
- Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
For to thee doth it appertain; for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
- 8
- But they are one and all senseless and foolish;
the teaching of vanities is a stock.
- 9
- Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artizan and of the hands of the founder;
blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skilful [men].
- 10
- But Jehovah Elohim is truth;
he is the living God, and the King of eternity. At his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations cannot abide his indignation.
- 11
- Thus 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.
- 12
- He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
- 13
- When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the end of the earth;
he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries.
- 14
- Every man is become brutish, bereft of knowledge;
every founder is put to shame by the graven 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 them;
for it is he that hath formed all [things], and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.
- 17
- Gather up thy baggage out of the land, O inhabitress of the fortress.
- 18
- For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will this time sling out the inhabitants of the land, and will distress them, that they may be found.
- 19
- Woe is me, for my wound!
My stroke is hard to heal, and I had said, Yea, this is [my] grief, and I will bear it.
- 20
- My tent is despoiled, and all my cords are broken;
my children are gone forth from me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
- 21
- For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not sought Jehovah;
therefore have they not acted wisely, and all their flock is scattered.
- 22
- The voice of a rumour!
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.
- 23
- I know, Jehovah, that the way of man is not his own;
it is not in a man that walketh to direct his steps.
- 24
- Jehovah, correct me, but with judgment;
not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
- 25
- Pour out thy fury upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name;
for they have eaten up Jacob, yea, they have eaten him up and consumed him, and have laid waste his dwelling-place.
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