1 Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2 Thus says the LORD: "Do not get used to the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the statutes of the peoples are emptiness: it is a tree someone cuts from the forest, the work of a craftsman's hands with the chisel.
4 With silver and gold they beautify it; with nails and hammers they make it firm so that it will not totter.
5 Like a scarecrow in a melon field they are, and they do not speak; they must be carried, for they do not walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, and doing good is not in them either."
6 There is none like you, O LORD; great are you, and great is your name in might.
7 Who would not fear you, King of the nations? For it is fitting for you; among all the wise of the nations, and in all their royal realms, there is none like you.
8 They are one and all stupid and foolish; the teaching of nothings is wood.
9 Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and of a smelter's hands; violet and purple are their clothing; all of them are the work of skilled men.
10 But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his anger the earth quakes, and nations cannot endure his indignation.
11 This is what you are to say to them: "The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from beneath these heavens."
12 He is the Maker of the earth by his strength, the one who fixed the world in place by his wisdom; by his insight he spread out the heavens.
13 When he gives forth his voice, the waters in the heavens are in uproar; he lifts the mists from the edge of the earth; he makes lightning flashes for the rain and sends the wind out from his treasuries.
14 All mankind is senseless, lacking knowledge; every metalsmith is disgraced by his carved image, for what he casts is a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are mere breath, a work of mockery; when the time comes to punish them, they will perish.
16 The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Shaper of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.
17 Pick up your bundle from the land, you who live under siege!
18 For thus says the LORD: "See, this time I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land, and I will press them hard, so that they will find it so."
19 Woe to me because of my shattering! My blow is incurable. But I said, "Surely this is a sickness, and I must bear it."
20 My tent is ruined, and all my cords are snapped; my sons have gone out from me and are no more; there is no one to pitch my tent again or to raise my curtains.
21 For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the LORD; so they have not acted wisely, and all their flock is scattered.
22 Hark, a report! Look, it comes, a great quaking out of the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a waste, a lair of jackals.
23 I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not his own; it is not in a man who walks to direct his steps.
24 Discipline me, O LORD, but in just measure; not in your anger, or you will make me small.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you and on the clans that do not call on your name; for they have eaten Jacob, eaten him and finished him off, and laid his pasture waste.