Learn not the way of the heathen,
and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
for the heathen are dismayed at them.
³ For the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
⁵ They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not:
they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.
Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil,
neither also is it in them to do good.

⁶ Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord;
thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
⁷ Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
for to thee doth it appertain:
forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like unto thee.
⁸ But they are altogether brutish and foolish:
the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
⁹ Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder:
blue and purple is their clothing:
they are all the work of cunning men.
¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God,
he is the living God, and an everlasting king:
at his wrath the earth shall tremble,
and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
¹¹ Thus shall ye say unto them,
The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,
even they shall perish from the earth,
and from under these heavens.
¹² He hath made the earth by his power,
he hath established the world by his wisdom,
and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
¹³ When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens,
and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth;
he maketh lightnings with rain,
and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
¹⁴ Every man is brutish in his knowledge:
every founder is confounded by the graven image:
for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
¹⁵ They are vanity, and the work of errors:
in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like them:
for he is the former of all things;
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance:
The Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up thy wares out of the land,
O inhabitant of the fortress.
¹⁸ For thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once,
and will distress them, that they may find it so.

¹⁹ Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous:
but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
²⁰ My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken:
my children are gone forth of me, and they are not:
there is none to stretch forth my tent any more,
and to set up my curtains.
²¹ For the pastors are become brutish,
and have not sought the Lord:
therefore they shall not prosper,
and all their flocks shall be scattered.
²² Behold, the noise of the bruit is come,
and a great commotion out of the north country,
to make the cities of Judah desolate,
and a den of dragons.

²³ O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself:
it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
²⁴ O Lord, correct me, but with judgment;
not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
²⁵ Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not,
and upon the families that call not on thy name:
for they have eaten up Jacob,
and devoured him, and consumed him,
and have made his habitation desolate.