1 Hear ye the word which
_the_LORD_Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith
_the_LORD_Jehovah, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people
are vain: for
one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They
are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also
is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as
there is none like unto thee,
_LORD_O 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: forasmuch as among all the wise
men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like unto thee.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock
is a doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they
are all the work of cunning
men.
10 But
_the_LORD_Jehovah is the true God, he
is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,
even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these 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 discretion.
13 When he uttereth his voice,
there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is brutish in
his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and
there is no breath in them.
15 They
are vanity,
and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16 The portion of Jacob
is not like them: for he
is the former of all
things; and Israel
is the rod of his inheritance:
_the_LORD_Jehovah of hosts
is his name.
19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this
is a grief, and I must bear it.
20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they
are not:
there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought
_the_LORD_Jehovah: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate,
and a den of dragons.
23 _O_LORD_O Jehovah, I know that the way of man
is not in himself:
it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
24 _O_LORD_O Jehovah, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name:
for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.