1Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O people of Israel:
2This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them.
3For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.
4They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved.
5It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good.
6There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power.
7Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
8But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood.
9Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing, all the work of expert men.
10But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath.
11This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens.
12He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out.
13At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses.
14Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them.
15They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them.
16The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name.
17Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town.
18For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that they will be conscious of it.
19Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free from it.
20My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains.
21For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight.
22News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.
23O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps.
24O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small.
25Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste.