Jeremiah 10

¹ Listen, House of Israel, to the word that Yahweh addresses to you. Yahweh says this:

² 'Do not learn the ways of the nations or take alarm at the heavenly signs, alarmed though the nationsmay be at them.

³ Yes, the customs of the peoples are quite futile: wood, nothing more, cut out of a forest, worked with ablade by a carver's hand,

⁴ then embellished with silver and gold, then fastened with hammer and nails to keep it from moving.

⁵ Like scarecrows in a melon patch, they cannot talk, they have to be carried, since they cannot walk.Have no fear of them: they can do no harm -- nor any good either!'

⁶ Yahweh, there is no one like you, so great you are, so great your mighty name.

⁷ Who would not revere you, King of nations? Yes, this is your due. Since of all the wise among thenations, and in al their kingdoms, there is not a single one like you.

⁸ Al of them are brutish and stupid: the Futile Ones' teaching is but wood,

⁹ silver leaf imported from Tarshish and gold from Ophir, the work of carver or goldsmith; then dressed up in violet and purple, all the work of skil ed men.

¹⁰ But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, the everlasting King. The earth quakes when he iswrathful, the nations cannot endure his fury.

¹¹ 'Tell them this, "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will vanish from the earth andfrom under these heavens." '

¹² By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, but his discernment spread out theheavens.

¹³ When he thunders there is a roaring of waters in heaven; he raises clouds from the remotest parts ofthe earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.

¹⁴ At this al people stand stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for his idols; hiscastings are but delusion, with no breath in them.

¹⁵ They are futile, a laughable production; when the time comes for them to be punished, they wilvanish.

¹⁶ The Heritage of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that ishis heritage. His name is Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁷ Pick up your pack from the ground, you the besieged!

¹⁸ For Yahweh says this, 'Now I shall throw out the inhabitants of the country, this time, and bringdistress on them, so that they may find me!'

¹⁹ Disaster is on me! What a wound! My injury is incurable! And I used to think, 'If this is the worst, I canbear it!'

²⁰ But now my tent is destroyed, al my ropes are snapped, my sons have left me and are no more; noone is left to put my tent up again or to hang the side-cloths.

²¹ The shepherds are the ones who have been stupid: they have not searched for Yahweh. This is whythey have not prospered and why their whole flock has been dispersed.

²² Listen! A terrible noise! A mighty uproar from the land of the north to reduce the towns of Judah todesert, to a lair for jackals!

²³ I know, Yahweh, no one's course is in his control, nor is it in anyone's power, as he goes his way, toguide his own steps.

²⁴ Correct me, Yahweh, but with moderation, not in your anger, or you wil reduce me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the families that do not calon your name, for they have devoured Jacob, have devoured and made an end of him and reduced his home todesolation.