Isaiah 44:9-20

Modern English Version

⁹ Those who make a graven image are, all of them, vain,
    and their delectable things shall not profit;
and they are their own witnesses;
    they do not see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
¹⁰ Who has formed a god or molded a graven image
    that is profitable for nothing?
¹¹ All his companions shall be ashamed;
    and the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together; let them stand up,
    yet they shall fear; they shall be ashamed together.

¹² The smith with the tongs
    both works in the coals
and fashions it with hammers,
    and works it with the strength of his arms.
He becomes hungry, and his strength fails;
    He drinks no water and is faint.
¹³ The carpenter stretches out his measuring line;
    he marks it out with a line;
he fits it with planes,
    and he marks it out with the compass,
and makes it after the figure of a man,
    according to the beauty of a man,
    that it may remain in the house.
¹⁴ He hews down cedars for himself,
    and takes the cypress and the oak,
which he raises for himself among the trees of the forest.
    He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow.
¹⁵ Then it shall be for a man to burn,
    for he will take some of it and warm himself;
    he kindles it and bakes bread;
he also makes a god and worships it;
    he makes it a graven image and bows down to it.
¹⁶ He burns half of it in the fire;
    over this half he eats meat;
    he roasts it and is satisfied.
Also he warms himself and says,
    “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.”
¹⁷ And the rest he makes into a god, even his carved image.
    He falls down to it, and worships it,
and prays to it, and says,
    “Deliver me, for you are my god.”
¹⁸ They have not known nor understood;
    for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see,
    and their hearts so that they cannot understand.
¹⁹ No one considers in his heart,
    nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“I have burned part of it in the fire;
    I also have baked bread on the coals;
    I have roasted meat and eaten it;
and shall I make the rest into an abomination?
    Shall I fall down to a block of wood?”
²⁰ He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside
    so that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say,
    “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”