Jeremiah 10:1-25
10 Hear the word that Jehovah has spoken against YOU people, O house of Israel.
2 This is what Jehovah has said: “Do not learn the way of the nations at all,+ and do not be struck with terror even at the signs of the heavens, because the nations are struck with terror at them.+
3 For the customs* of the peoples+ are just an exhalation, because it is a mere tree+ out of the forest that one has cut down, the work of the hands of the craftsman with the billhook.+
4 With silver and with gold one makes it pretty.+ With nails and with hammers they fasten them down, that none may reel.+
5 They are like a scarecrow of a cucumber field, and cannot speak.+ Without fail they are carried, for they cannot take any steps.+ Do not be afraid because of them, for they can do nothing calamitous and, what is more, the doing of any good is not with them.”+
6 In no way is there anyone like you, O Jehovah.+ You are great, and your name is great in mightiness.+
7 Who should not fear you,+ O King of the nations,+ for to you it is fitting; because among all the wise ones of the nations and among all their kingships there is in no way anyone like you.+
8 And at one and the same time they prove to be unreasoning and stupid.+ A tree is a mere exhortation of vanities.+
9 Silver beaten into plates is what is brought in even from Tarʹshish,+ and gold from Uʹphaz,*+ the workmanship of a craftsman and of the hands of a metalworker; their clothing is blue thread and wool dyed reddish purple. They are all the workmanship of skilled people.+
10 But Jehovah is in truth God.*+ He is the living God+ and the King to time indefinite.+ Because of his indignation the earth will rock,+ and no nations will hold up under his denunciation.+
11 This is what YOU men will say to them: “The gods*+ that did not make the very heavens and the earth are the ones who will perish from the earth+ and from under these heavens.”*
12 He* is the Maker of the earth by his power,+ the One firmly establishing the productive land* by his wisdom,+ and the One who by his understanding stretched out the heavens.+
13 At [his] voice there is a giving by him of a turmoil of waters in the heavens,+ and he causes vapors* to ascend from the extremity* of the earth.+ He has made even sluices* for the rain,+ and he brings forth the wind* from his storehouses.+
14 Every man* has behaved so unreasoningly as not to know.+ Every metalworker will certainly feel shame because of the carved image;+ for his molten image is a falsehood,+ and there is no spirit* in them.+
15 They are vanity,* a work of mockery.+ In the time of their being given attention they will perish.+
16 The Share of Jacob+ is not like these things, for he is the Former of everything,+ and Israel is the staff* of his inheritance.+ Jehovah of armies is his name.+
17 Gather up from the earth your pack load,+ O woman dwelling under stress.+
18 For this is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am slinging out the inhabitants of the earth* on this occasion,+ and I will cause them distress in order that they may find out.”+
19 Woe to me on account of my breakdown!+ My stroke has become sickish.* And I myself have said: “Surely this is my sickness, and I shall carry it.+
20 My own tent has been despoiled, and my own tent cords have all been torn in two.+ My own sons have gone forth from me, and they are no more.+ There is no one stretching out my tent anymore or raising up my tent cloths.
21 For the shepherds have behaved unreasoningly,+ and they have not looked even for Jehovah.+ That is why they have not acted with insight, and all their pastured animals have been scattered.”+
22 Listen! A report! Here it* has come, also a great pounding from the land of the north,+ in order to make the cities of Judah a desolate waste, the lair of jackals.+
23 I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man* his way does not belong. It does not belong to man* who is walking even to direct his step.+
24 Correct me, O Jehovah, however with judgment;+ not in your anger,+ that you may not reduce me to nothing.+
25 Pour out your rage upon the nations+ who have ignored you,*+ and upon the families who have not called even upon your name.+ For they have eaten up Jacob.+ Yes, they have eaten him up, and they keep at exterminating him;+ and his abiding place they have desolated.+
Footnotes
^ Or, “statutes.” Sy, “objects of fear; idols.”
^ “Uphaz,” MVg; TThSy, “Ophir.”
^ “Is in truth God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ ʼemethʹ.
^ “The gods.” Aram., ʼela·hai·yaʼʹ. This entire vs is written in Aram.
^ “Heavens.” Aram., shemai·yaʼʹ.
^ “He,” MVg; LXXSy, “Jehovah.”
^ “Productive land.” Heb., te·velʹ; LXX, “inhabited earth”; Lat., orʹbem, “circle,” that is, of the earth.
^ “Wind.” Heb., ruʹach; Lat., venʹtum; Gr., phos, “light.”
^ “Sluices,” by reading beda·qimʹ instead of bera·qimʹ, “lightnings”; MTLXXSyVg, “lightnings.” See JTS, Vol. 3, 1952, pp. 214-216. Compare Ps 135:7 ftn, “Sluices.”
^ Or, “vaporous clouds.”
^ “Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “breath.” Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma; Lat., spiʹri·tus.
^ Or, “an exhalation.”
^ Or, “tribe.” Heb., sheʹvet.
^ Or, “land.”
^ Or, “chronic; incurable.”
^ “It,” fem. sing., referring to the “report.”
^ “Not belong to man.” Heb., loʼ-leʼishʹ.
^ “To earthling man.” Heb., la·ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “who have not come to know you.”
