False Idols and the True God

¹Y’all are to listen the word that YHWH speaks to y’all, house of Israel.

²YHWH says,

“Y’all are not to learn the way of the nations,

and y’all must not be terrified of the signs in the sky,

though the nations are terrified at them.

³For the customs of the peoples are worthless;

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and an artisan shapes it with the ax.

⁴They deck it with silver and with gold.

They fasten it with nails and with hammers,

so that it won’t totter.

⁵Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,

they cannot speak.

They must be carried-carried,

because they can’t walk.

Y’all must not fear them;

because they can’t do evil,

nor can they do any good.”

⁶There is no one like you, YHWH.

You are great,

and your name is great in might.

⁷Who shouldn’t fear you,

King of the nations?

For it belongs to you.

Because among all the wise men of the nations,

and in all their royal estate,

there is no one like you.

⁸But they are together brutish and foolish,

instructed by idols made of wood.

⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish,

and gold from Uphaz,

the work of the engraver and of the hands of the goldsmith.

Their clothing is blue and purple.

They are all made by skillful workers.

¹⁰But YHWH is the true God.

Hᴇ is the living God,

and an everlasting King.

At ʜɪꜱ wrath, the earth trembles.

The nations cannot endure ʜɪꜱ fury.

¹¹“Y’all are to tell them this: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”

¹²God has made the earth by ʜɪꜱ power.

Hᴇ has established the world by ʜɪꜱ wisdom,

and by ʜɪꜱ understanding has ʜᴇ stretched out the heavens.

¹³When ʜᴇ utters ʜɪꜱ voice,

the waters in the heavens roar,

and ʜᴇ causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.

Hᴇ makes lightnings for the rain,

and brings the wind out of ʜɪꜱ treasuries.

¹⁴Everyone has become brutish and without knowledge.

Every goldsmith is shamed by his idol;

for his molten image is deceitful,

and there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are worthless, a work of delusion.

In the time of their visitation they will perish.

¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like these;

for ʜᴇ is the maker of all things;

and Israel is the tribe of ʜɪꜱ inheritance.

YHWH Almighty is ʜɪꜱ name.

¹⁷Gather up your wares out of the land,

you who live under siege.

¹⁸For YHWH says,

“Look, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,

and will distress them, that they may feel it.”

¹⁹Woe is me because of my injury!

My wound is serious;

but I said,

“Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.”

²⁰My tent has been destroyed,

and all my cords are broken.

My children have gone away from me, and they are no more.

There is no one to spread my tent any more,

to set up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds have become brutish,

and have not inquired of YHWH.

Therefore they have not prospered,

and all their flocks have scattered.

²²The voice of news, is coming,

and a great commotion out of the north country,

to make the cities of Judah a desolation,

a dwelling place of jackals.

Jeremiah’s Prayer

²³YHWH, I know that the way of person is not in themself.

No one who walks directs their own steps.

²⁴YHWH, correct me, but gently,

not in your anger,

or you will reduce me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,

and on the families that don’t call on your name.

For they have devoured Jacob.

Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him,

and have laid waste his habitation.