Isaiah 44:18-20

New International Reader's Version

¹⁸ People like that don’t even know what they are doing.
    Their eyes are shut so that they can’t see the truth.
    Their minds are closed so that they can’t understand it.
¹⁹ No one even stops to think about this.
    No one has any sense or understanding.
    If anyone did, they would say,
“I used half of the wood for fuel.
    I even baked bread over the fire.
    I cooked meat. Then I ate it.
Should I now make a statue of a god
    out of the wood that’s left over?
Should I bow down to a block of wood?
    The Lord would hate that.”
²⁰ That’s as foolish as eating ashes!
    The mind of someone like that
    has led him astray.
He can’t save himself.
    He can’t bring himself to say,
“This thing I’m holding in my right hand
    isn’t really a god at all.”