Jeremiah 10
The Message
The Stick Gods
10 1-5 Listen to the Message that God is sending your way, House of Israel. Listen most carefully:
“Don’t take the godless nations as your models.
Don’t be impressed by their glamour and glitz,
no matter how much they’re impressed.
The religion of these peoples
is nothing but smoke.
An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down,
then shaped by a woodsman’s ax.
They trim it with tinsel and balls,
use hammer and nails to keep it upright.
It’s like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can’t talk!
Deadwood that has to be carried—can’t walk!
Don’t be impressed by such stuff.
It’s useless for either good or evil.”
6-9 All this is nothing compared to you, O God.
You’re wondrously great, famously great.
Who can fail to be impressed by you, King of the nations?
It’s your very nature to be worshiped!
Look far and wide among the elite of the nations.
The best they can come up with is nothing compared to you.
Stupidly, they line them up—a lineup of sticks,
good for nothing but making smoke.
Gilded with silver foil from Tarshish,
covered with gold from Uphaz,
Hung with violet and purple fabrics—
no matter how fancy the sticks, they’re still sticks.
10 But God is the real thing—
the living God, the eternal King.
When he’s angry, Earth shakes.
Yes, and the godless nations quake.
11-15 “Tell them this, ‘The stick gods
who made nothing, neither sky nor earth,
Will come to nothing
on the earth and under the sky.’”
But it is God whose power made the earth,
whose wisdom gave shape to the world,
who crafted the cosmos.
He thunders, and rain pours down.
He sends the clouds soaring.
He embellishes the storm with lightnings,
launches wind from his warehouse.
Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish,
god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!
Their gods are frauds—dead sticks,
deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.
When the fires of judgment come, they’ll be ashes.
16 But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing.
He put the whole universe together
And pays special attention to Israel.
His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
* * *
17-18 Grab your bags,
all you who are under attack.
God has given notice:
“Attention! I’m evicting
Everyone who lives here,
And right now—yes, right now!
I’m going to press them to the limit,
squeeze the life right out of them.”
* * *
19-20 But it’s a black day for me!
Hopelessly wounded,
I said, “Why, oh why
did I think I could bear it?”
My house is ruined—
the roof caved in.
Our children are gone—
we’ll never see them again.
No one left to help in rebuilding,
no one to make a new start!
21 It’s because our leaders are stupid.
They never asked God for counsel,
And so nothing worked right.
The people are scattered all over.
22 But listen! Something’s coming!
A big commotion from the northern borders!
Judah’s towns about to be smashed,
left to all the stray dogs and cats!
23-25 I know, God, that mere mortals
can’t run their own lives,
That men and women
don’t have what it takes to take charge of life.
So correct us, God, as you see best.
Don’t lose your temper. That would be the end of us.
Vent your anger on the godless nations,
who refuse to acknowledge you,
And on the people
who won’t pray to you—
The very ones who’ve made a meal out of Jacob,
yes, made a meal
And devoured him whole,
people and pastures alike.
Jeremiah 10
English Standard Version
Idols and the Living God
10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:
“Learn not the way of the nations,
nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
because the nations are dismayed at them,
3 (A)for the customs of the peoples are vanity.[a]
(B)A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
4 (C)They decorate it with silver and gold;
(D)they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
5 Their idols[b] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and (E)they cannot speak;
(F)they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
(G)for they cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
6 (H)There is none like you, O Lord;
you are great, and your name is great in might.
7 (I)Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you.
8 (J)They are both (K)stupid and foolish;
the instruction of idols is but wood!
9 (L)Beaten silver is brought from (M)Tarshish,
and gold from (N)Uphaz.
(O)They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;
their clothing is violet and purple;
(P)they are all the work of skilled men.
10 (Q)But the Lord is the true God;
(R)he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
11 Thus shall you say to them: (S)“The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth (T)shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”[c]
12 (U)It is he who (V)made the earth by his power,
(W)who established the world by his wisdom,
and (X)by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
13 (Y)When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
(Z)and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
(AA)He makes lightning (AB)for the rain,
(AC)and he brings forth the wind (AD)from his storehouses.
14 (AE)Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
(AF)every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
(AG)and there is no breath in them.
15 They are worthless, a work of delusion;
at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
16 Not like these is he who is (AH)the portion of Jacob,
for he is the one who formed all things,
(AI)and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
(AJ)the Lord of hosts is his name.
17 (AK)Gather up your bundle from the ground,
O you who dwell under siege!
18 For thus says the Lord:
(AL)“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land
at this time,
(AM)and I will bring distress on them,
that they may feel it.”
19 Woe is me because of my hurt!
(AN)My wound is grievous.
But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,
and I must bear it.”
20 (AO)My tent is destroyed,
and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me,
(AP)and they are not;
there is no one to spread my tent again
and (AQ)to set up my curtains.
21 (AR)For the shepherds (AS)are stupid
and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered,
(AT)and all their flock is scattered.
22 A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—
(AU)a great commotion out of the north country
to make (AV)the cities of Judah a desolation,
(AW)a lair of jackals.
23 (AX)I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
24 (AY)Correct me, O Lord, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
25 (AZ)Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,
and on the peoples that call not on your name,
(BA)for they have devoured Jacob;
they have devoured him and consumed him,
and have laid waste his habitation.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 10:3 Or vapor, or mist
- Jeremiah 10:5 Hebrew They
- Jeremiah 10:11 This verse is in Aramaic
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
