1. Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2. thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.
3. For the customs of the peoples are vanity: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.
4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5. They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
6. There is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7. Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto thee.
8. But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols, it is but a stock.
9. There is silver beaten into plates which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of cunning men.
10. But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.
11. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.