Chapter 10

¹Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel. ²Thus 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: ³For 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. ⁴He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder. ⁵They 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. ⁶There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great and great is thy name in might. ⁷Who shall 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. ⁸They shall all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood. ⁹Silver 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. ¹⁰But 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. ¹¹Thus 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. ¹²He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge. ¹³At 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 for the wind out of his treasures. ¹⁴Every 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. ¹⁵They are vain things and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶The 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. ¹⁷Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege. ¹⁸For thus saith the 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. ¹⁹Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it. ²⁰My 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. ²¹Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered. ²²Behold 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. ²³I 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. ²⁴Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgement: and not in fury, lest thou bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour 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.