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¹ Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel:² thus says Yahweh, Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of heaven; 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 will not move.⁵ They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must surely be borne, 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, O Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might.⁷ Who should not fear you, O King of the nations? for to you does it appertain; since 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 Uphaz, 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 Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.¹¹ Thus you shall say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.¹² He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he has 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 earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.¹⁴ All of man has become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven 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 Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up your wares out of the land, O you that abide in the siege.¹⁸ For thus says Yahweh, Look, 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 sons have gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent anymore, and to set up my curtains.²¹ For the shepherds have become brutish, and haven't inquired of Yahweh: therefore they haven't prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.²² The voice of tidings, look, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.²³ O Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in a man that walks to direct his steps.²⁴ O Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, or else you will bring me to nothing.²⁵ Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that do not call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.