Letter of Jeremiah 17-19

Revised Standard Version

¹⁷ For just as one’s dish is useless when it is broken, so are the gods of the heathen,^[a] when they have been set up in the temples. Their eyes are full of the dust raised by the feet of those who enter. ¹⁸ And just as the gates are shut on every side upon a man who has offended a king, as though he were sentenced to death, so the priests make their temples secure with doors and locks and bars, in order that they may not be plundered by robbers. ¹⁹ They light lamps, even more than they light for themselves, though their gods^[b] can see none of them.