1
Hear the Word that Yahuah speaks concerning you, House of Yisra’el.
2
Thus says Yahuah: “Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be shattered by the signs of the heavens, though the nations are shattered by them.
3
For the statutes of the peoples are breath: one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with the axe.
4
They beautify it with silver and with gold; with nails and with hammers they strengthen it, so that it does not move.
5
They are like a shaped post in a cucumber field and cannot speak. Carrying, they must be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good.”
6
There is none like You, Yahuah. You are great, and Your Name is great in might.
7
Who would not fear You, Sovereign of the nations? For it belongs to You. For among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.
8
But together they are brutish and foolish; the instruction of vanities is wood.
9
Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshiysh, and gold from Uphaz— the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the refiner. Blue and purple are their clothing; all of them are the work of skilled ones.
10
But Yahuah is the Elohim of truth; He is the living Elohim and the everlasting Sovereign. At His wrath the earth trembles, and the nations cannot contain His indignation.
11
Thus you shall say to them: “The elohim that did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from beneath these heavens.”
12
He made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
13
At the giving of His voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens. He causes vapors to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings wind from His treasuries.
14
Every Adam is brutish, without knowledge; every refiner is ashamed by the carved image. For his poured image is falsehood, and there is no ruach in them.
15
They are breath, a work of mockery. In the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16
The Portion of Yaaqov is not like these, for He is the Former of all, and Yisra’el is the tribe of His Inheritance. Yahuah of Hosts is His Name.
17
Gather your bundle from the land, you who dwell under siege.
18
For thus says Yahuah: “See, at this time I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land, and I shall distress them so that they may find it.”
19
Woe to me because of my fracture! My wound is grievous. Yet I said, “Surely this is my sickness, and I must bear it.”
20
My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are torn away. My sons have gone from me, and they are no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent again or raise my curtains.
21
For the shepherds have become brutish and have not sought Yahuah. Therefore they have not acted wisely, and all their flock is scattered.
22
The voice of a report—see, it comes— and a great shaking from the land of the north, to make the cities of Yehudah a waste, a dwelling of jackals.
23
I know, Yahuah, that the Way of Adam is not in himself; it is not in the ish who walks to establish his own step.
24
Correct me, Yahuah, but in Judgment— not in Your anger, lest You make me small.
25
Pour out Your fury upon the nations that do not know You, and upon the families that do not call upon Your Name. For they have devoured Yaaqov; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have made his dwelling desolate.