Jeremiah
10
- Hear what the LORD says to you, O house
of Israel.
- This is what the LORD says: "Do not
learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though
the nations are terrified by them.
- For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
- They adorn it with silver and gold; they
fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
- Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their
idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not
fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."
- No one is like you, O LORD; you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.
- Who should not revere you, O King of the
nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all
their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
- They are all senseless and foolish; they
are taught by worthless wooden idols.
- Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish
and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed
in blue and purple -- all made by skilled workers.
- But the LORD is the true God; he is the
living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations
cannot endure his wrath.
- "Tell them this: 'These gods, who did
not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under
the heavens.'"
- But God made the earth by his power; he
founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
- When he thunders, the waters in the heavens
roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning
with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
- Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have
no breath in them.
- They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
- He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like
these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the tribe of his
inheritance -- the LORD Almighty is his name.
- Gather up your belongings to leave the land,
you who live under siege.
- For this is what the LORD says: "At
this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress
on them so that they may be captured."
- Woe to me because of my injury! My wound
is incurable! Yet I said to myself, "This is my sickness, and I must
endure it."
- My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are
snapped. My sons are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch
my tent or to set up my shelter.
- The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire
of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.
- Listen! The report is coming -- a great
commotion from the land of the north! It will make the towns of Judah desolate,
a haunt of jackals.
- I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not
his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.
- Correct me, LORD, but only with justice
-- not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.
- Pour out your wrath on the nations that
do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they
have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland.
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