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¹ Hear you the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Yisra'el: ² thus says the LORD, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³ For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax. ⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. ⁵ They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good. ⁶ There is none like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷ Who should not fear you, King of the nations? for to you does it appertain; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you. ⁸ But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹ There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ufaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men. ¹⁰ But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the eretz trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation. ¹¹ Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the eretz, these shall perish from the eretz, and from under the heavens. ¹² He has made the eretz by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ¹³ when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the eretz; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴ Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his engraved 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 Ya`akov is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Yisra'el is the tribe of his inheritance: the LORD of Hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up your wares out of the land, you who abide in the siege. ¹⁸ For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it]. ¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹ For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of the LORD: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²² The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Yehudah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals. ²³ LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. ²⁴ LORD, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. ²⁵ Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Ya`akov, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.