1. Listen to the word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.
2. Thus says the Lord: "Do not choose to learn according to the ways of the Gentiles. And do not be willing to dread the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear.
3. For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe.
4. He has adorned it with silver and gold. He has put it together with nail and hammer, so that it will not fall apart.
5. They have been fabricated in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak. They must be carried to be moved, because they do not have the ability to walk. Therefore, do not be willing to fear them, for they can do neither evil nor good."
6. O Lord, there is nothing similar to you. You are great, and your name is great in strength.
7. Who will not fear you, O King of the nations? For honor is yours. Among all the wise of the nations, and within all their kingdoms, there is nothing similar to you.
8. Together, they will all be proven to be unwise and foolish. The doctrine of their vanity is made of wood.
9. Rolled silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. It is the work of a craftsman, and of the hand of a coppersmith. Hyacinth and purple is their clothing. All these things are the work of artists.
10. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Before his indignation, the earth will shake. And the Gentiles will not be able to withstand his threats.
11. "And so, you shall speak to them in this way: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from among those places which are under heaven.
12. He made the earth by his power, he prepared the world in his wisdom, and he stretched out the heavens with his understanding.
13. At his voice, he grants a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth. He causes the lightning with the rain, and he leads forth the wind from his storehouses.
14. Every man has become a fool concerning knowledge; every artist has been confounded by his graven image. For what he has formed is false, and there is no spirit in these things.
15. These things are empty, and they are a work deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.