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.
