Jeremias 10

¹ HHear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.

² Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear:

³ For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.

⁴ He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.

⁵ They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go. Therefore fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.

⁶ There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great, and great is thy name in might.

⁷ Who shall not fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.

⁸ They shall be all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.

⁹ Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith: violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.

¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.

¹¹ Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those places that are under heaven.

¹² He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.

¹³ At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

¹⁴ Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.

¹⁵ They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege.

¹⁸ For thus saith he Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that they may be found.

¹⁹ Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.

²⁰ My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹ Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered.

²² Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.

²³ I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.

²⁴ Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in thy fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.