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Idolatry Brings Destruction

10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O Israel! This is what the Lord says:

“Do not act like the other nations,
    who try to read their future in the stars.
Do not be afraid of their predictions,
    even though other nations are terrified by them.
Their ways are futile and foolish.
    They cut down a tree, and a craftsman carves an idol.
They decorate it with gold and silver
    and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails
    so it won’t fall over.
Their gods are like
    helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field!
They cannot speak,
    and they need to be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of such gods,
    for they can neither harm you nor do you any good.”

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10 Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says Yahweh:

“You must not learn the way of the nations,
    and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens,
    for the nations are dismayed by them.
For the statutes of the peoples are vanity,
    for it is a tree cut down from the forest,
    the work of the hands of a craftsman with the tool.
He decorates it with silver and gold,
    they strengthen it with nails and hammers,
    so that it does not stagger.
They are like scarecrows[a] in a cucumber field,
    they cannot speak.
Indeed, they must be carried,
    for they cannot march.
You must not be afraid of them,
    for they cannot do evil;
furthermore, to do good is not in them.”

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 10:5 Hebrew “scarecrow”