Jeremiah

10 Hear ye the word which Yahweh hath spoken unto you, O house of Israel:—

2 Thus saith Yahweh—Unto the way of the nations become not ye accustomed, Nor at the signs of the heavens be ye dismayed,—Because the nations are dismayed at them.

3 For as for the prescribed customs of the peoples vanity they are,—For a tree out of the forest one cutteth down, Work for the hands of a skilled workman with the axe:

4 With silver and with gold he decketh it,—With nails and with hammers they fasten them that it may not totter.

5 Mere palm-trunks turned they are and cannot speak, They must needs be carried for they cannot take a step,—Be not afraid of them for they cannot do harm, And even to do good is not in their power.

6 None there is like unto thee, O Yahweh,—Great art thou And great is thy Name for might.

7 Who would not revere thee, O King of nations? For thee doth it beseem; Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations And throughout all their royal estate None there is like unto thee.

8 But at once do they become brutish and stupid,—An example of utmost vanity is a tree!

9 Silver spread into plates from Tarshish is brought And gold from Uphaz, Work for the craftsman and for the hands of the smith,—Blue and purple is their clothing, Work for the skilled are they all.

10 But Yahweh is God in truth, He is a God that liveth And a King of times age-abiding,—At his anger quaketh the earth, And nations cannot endure his wrath.

11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that made not the heavens And the earth Shall perish out of the earth And from under these heavens!

12 He that made the earth by his power, That established the world by his wisdom,—And by his understanding stretched out the heavens

13 At the voice that he uttered there was a tumult of waters in the heavens, And he caused vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth,—The lightnings for rain he made, And brought forth wind out of his treasuries.

14 Every son of earth hath become too brutish to discern, Every goldsmith hath been put to shame by a graven image,—For a falsehood is his molten image Seeing there is no breath in them.

15 Vanity they are, the handiwork of mockeries,—In the time of their visitation shall they perish.

16 Not like these is the portion of Jacob For the fashioner of all things is he, And Israel is his inherited sceptre,—Yahweh of hosts is his name.

17 Fold up from the ground thy travelling carpet,—O inhabitress of the fortress;

18 For thus saith Yahweh, Behold me! slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this throw,—And I will distress them that they may discover it.

19 Woe to me! for my grievous injury, Severe is my wound,—But I said, Verily this is an affliction and I must bear it:

20 My tent is laid waste, And all my tent-cords are broken,—My children are gone forth from me and they are not. There is none To stretch out any more my tent, Or to set up my curtains.

21 For the shepherds have become brutish, And Yahweh have they not sought,—For this cause have they not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.

22 The noise of a rumour! lo it hath come! Even a great commotion out of the land of the North,—To make the cities of Judah A desolation, A den of jackals.

23 I know, O Yahweh, That not to a son of earth pertaineth his own path,—Not to the man who walketh also to direct his own steps.

24 Chastise me, O Yahweh, But yet in measure,—Not in thine anger, lest thou make me few.

25 Pour out thy wrath—Upon the nations that know thee not, and Upon the families that upon thy Name have not called,—For they have devoured Jacob, Yea they have devoured him and consumed him, And his habitation have they made desolate.