Jeremiah 10

¹ Listen, House of Israel, to the word that Yahweh addresses to you.

² Thus says Yahweh: ‘Do not adopt the ways of the nations or take alarm at the heavenly signs, alarmed though the nations may be at them.

³ Yes, the Dread of the peoples is a nothing, wood, nothing more, cut out of a forest, worked with a blade by a carver’s hand,

⁹ – silver leaf from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir – work of a carver and a goldsmith’s hand: all some craftsman’s work; they dress them up in violet and purple;

⁵ Scarecrows in a melon patch, and dumb as these, they have to be carried, cannot walk themselves. Have no fear of them: they can do no harm – nor any good either!’

⁶ Yahweh, there is no one like you, so great are you, so great your mighty name.

⁷ Who would not revere you, King of nations? Yes, this is your due. Since of all the wise among the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is not a single one like you.

⁸ The whole lot of them are brutish and stupid: the teaching given by these Nothings is void of sense.

¹⁰ But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, the everlasting King. The earth quakes when he is wrathful, the nations cannot endure his fury.

¹¹ (‘Tell them this, “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, will vanish from the earth and from under the heavens”.’)

¹² By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, by his discernment spread out the heavens.

¹³ When he thunders there is a tumult of water in the heavens; he raises clouds from the boundaries of earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.

¹⁴ At this all men stand stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for the idol he has made, since his images are nothing but delusion, with no breath in them.

¹⁵ They are a Nothing, a laughable production; when the time comes for them to be punished, they will vanish.

¹⁶ ‘The Portion of Jacob’ is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that is his heritage. His name is Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁷ Pack up! Flee the country, you the besieged!

¹⁸ For Yahweh says this, ‘Now I will throw out the inhabitants of the land this time, and bring distress on them, to see if they will find me then!’

¹⁹ I despair for this wound of mine! My injury is incurable! I told myself this was an affliction that could be borne,

²⁰ but now my tent is destroyed, all my ropes are snapped, my sons have left me and are no more; no one is left to put my tent up again, or to hang the side-cloths.

²¹ The shepherds are the ones who have been stupid: they have not searched for Yahweh. This is why they have not prospered and why their whole flock has been dispersed.

²² News! News has come! A mighty uproar coming from the land of the North to reduce the towns of Judah to desert, to a jackal’s lair.

²³ Well you know, Yahweh, the course of man is not in his control, nor is it in man’s power as he goes his way to guide his steps.

²⁴ Correct us, Yahweh, gently, not in your anger or you will reduce us to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out your anger on the pagans, who do not acknowledge you, and on those races that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob and made an end of him, and reduced his home to desolation.