1Hear the word that the LORD spoke to you, O house of Israel.2Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them.3For the statutes of the peoples are vanity; for it is a tree cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with an axe.4They beautify it with silver and gold; they strengthen them with nails and hammers so that it does not totter.5They are like a beaten palm and cannot speak; they must be carried, for they cannot walk; do not fear them, for they can do no evil, nor is it in them to do good.6There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.7Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this befits you, since among all the wise of the nations and in all their royalty there is none like you.8They are altogether brutish and foolish; the discipline of the vanities is wood.9Silver hammered out is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and of the hands of a refiner; blue and purple are their garments, the work of skilled men, all of them.10But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and an everlasting King; at his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.11Thus you shall say to them: The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.12He made the earth by his power; he established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens.13When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.14Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by his idol, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.15They are worthless, a work of delusions; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.16Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for he is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.