Jeremiah

The Folly of Idols

Chapter 10

¹ Hear the word that the LORD has spoken concerning you, house of Israel. ² The LORD says: Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed from the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them. ³ For the statutes of the peoples are vanity. It is a tree from a forest. They cut it. It is the work of the hands of a craftsman with an axe. ⁴ With silver and with gold they beautify them; with nails and with hammers they strengthen them, and it does not go forth. ⁵ They are shaped like a palm tree; they do not speak. They are carried—they must be carried—for they do not march. Do not fear them, for they do no harm, and there is also none in them that does good. ⁶ There is none like you, LORD; you are great, and great is your name in might. ⁷ Who will not fear you, King of the nations? For it befits you, for among all the wise ones of the nations and among all their kingdoms, there is none like you. ⁸ And in one they will burn up and they will act foolishly, the discipline of vanities—a tree it is. ⁹ Silver beaten from Tarshish will be brought, and gold from Ophir, the work of a craftsman and the hands of a refiner; blue and purple their clothing, the work of skilled artisans, all of them. ¹⁰ And the LORD God is truth; he is the living God and King of eternity—from his anger the earth trembles, and nations cannot endure his wrath. ¹¹ In this way you shall say to them: "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens." ¹² He made the earth by his power, he establishes the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens. ¹³ At the sound of his giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, he causes princes to ascend from the end of the earth; lightnings for rain he makes, and he brings out wind from his treasuries. ¹⁴ Every Adam is brutish from knowledge; every refiner is put to shame from an idol, for his cast image is a lie—they have no spirit in them. ¹⁵ They are idols, the work of delusions; at the time of their oversight they will perish. ¹⁶ Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for he is the Former of all, and Israel the tribe of his inheritance. The LORD of Hosts is his name.

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