Chapter 10

¹ Hear ye the word of the Lord, which he has spoken to you, O house of Israel.

² Thus saith the Lord, Learn ye not ¹the ways of the heathen, and be not alarmed at the signs of the sky; for they are alarmed at them, falling on their faces. ³ For the customs of the nations are vain; it is a tree cut out of the forest, the work of the carpenter, or a molten image. ⁴ They are beautified with silver and gold, they fix them with hammers and nails; ⁵ they will set them up ²that they may not move; it is wrought silver, they will not walk, it is forged silver ⁹ brought from Tharsis, gold will come from Mophaz, and the work of goldsmiths: they are all the works of craftsmen, they will clothe themselves with blue and scarlet. ⁵ They must certainly be borne, for they ³cannot ride of themselves. Fear them not; for they cannot do any evil, and there is no good in them.

¹¹ Thus shall ye say to them, Let the gods which have not made heaven and earth perish from off the earth, and from under this sky. ¹² It is the Lord that made the earth by his strength, who set up the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the sky, ¹³ and set abundance of waters in the sky, and brought up clouds from the ends of the earth; he made lightnings for the rain, and brought forth light

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out of his treasures. ¹⁴ Every man ⁴is deprived of knowledge, every goldsmith is confounded because of his graven images; for he has cast false gods, there is no breath in them. ¹⁵ They are vain works, ⁵wrought in mockery; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶ Such is not the portion of Jacob; for he that formed all things, he is ⁶his inheritance; the Lord is his name.

¹⁷ He has gathered thy substance from without the lodged in choice vessels. ¹⁸ For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will overthrow the inhabitants of this land with affliction, that thy plague may be discovered.

¹⁹ Alas for thy ruin! thy plague is grievous: and I said, Surely this is thy wound, and it has overtaken thee. ²⁰ Thy tabernacle is in a ruinous state, it has perished; and all thy curtains have been torn asunder: my children and my cattle are no more: there is no more any place for my tabernacle, nor place for my curtains. ²¹ For the shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought the Lord; therefore the whole pasture has failed, and the sheep have been scattered. ²² Behold, there comes a sound of a noise, and a great earthquake from the land of the north, to make the cities of Juda a desolation, and a resting-place for ostriches.

²³ I know, O Lord, that man's way is not his own; neither shall a man go, and direct his going. ²⁴ Chasten us, O Lord, but with judgment; and not in wrath, lest thou make us few. ²⁵ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the families that have not called upon thy name: for they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him, and have made his pasture desolate.