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¹ Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh to you, O house of Israel:² Thus saith the LORD, 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 ax.⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move.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 to thee, O LORD; 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 to 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 skillful [men].¹⁰ But the LORD [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 to 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 of hosts [is] his name.

¹⁷ Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.¹⁸ For thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them that they may find [it so].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 laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from 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 have become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.²² Behold, the sound of the noise is come, and a great commotion from the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, [and] a den of dragons.²³ O LORD, 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, correct me, but with judgment; not in thy 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.