³ For the customs and ordinances of the peoples are false, empty, and futile; it is but a tree which one cuts out of the forest [to make for himself a god], the work of the hands of the craftsman with the ax or other tool.

⁴ They deck [the idol] with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so it will not fall apart or move around.

⁵ [Their idols] are like pillars of turned work [as upright and stationary and immobile as a palm tree], like scarecrows in a cucumber field; they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it possible for them to do good [and it is not in them].

⁶ None at all is like You, O Lord; You are great, and Your name is great in might.

⁷ Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For it is fitting to You and Your due! For among all the wise [men or gods] of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.

⁸ But they are altogether irrational and stupid and foolish. Their instruction is given by idols who are but wood [it is a teaching of falsity, emptiness, futility]!

⁹ Silver beaten [into plates] is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; the [idols’] clothing is violet and purple—they are all the work of skillful men.

¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God and the God of truth (the God Who is Truth). He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations are not able to bear His indignation.

¹¹ Thus shall you say to them: The gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

⁹ All who make graven idols are confusion, chaos, and worthlessness. Their objects (idols) in which they delight do not profit them, and their own witnesses (worshipers) do not see or know, so that they are put to shame.