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The Lord and the Idols

10 Family of Israel, listen to what the Lord says to you. This is what he says:

“Don’t live like the people from other nations,
    and don’t be afraid of special signs in the sky,
    even though the other nations are afraid of them.
The customs of other people are worth nothing.
    Their idols are just wood cut from the forest,
    shaped by a worker with his chisel.
They decorate their idols with silver and gold.
    With hammers and nails they fasten them down
    so they won’t fall over.
Their idols are like scarecrows in melon fields;
    they cannot talk.
Since they cannot walk,
    they must be carried.
Do not be afraid of those idols,
    because they can’t hurt you,
    and they can’t help you either.”

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God and Idols(A)

10 Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. This is what the Lord says:

“Do not learn the ways of the nations(B)
    or be terrified by signs(C) in the heavens,
    though the nations are terrified by them.
For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
    they cut a tree out of the forest,
    and a craftsman(D) shapes it with his chisel.(E)
They adorn it with silver(F) and gold;
    they fasten it with hammer and nails
    so it will not totter.(G)
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,
    their idols cannot speak;(H)
they must be carried
    because they cannot walk.(I)
Do not fear them;
    they can do no harm(J)
    nor can they do any good.”(K)

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10 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

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.

They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

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.

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