Jeremiah 10:1-16

The False Gods and the True God

10¹ Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! ² Thus says Yahweh, “Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³ For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts 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 not move. ⁵ They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak: they must be carried, because they can’t go. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.” ⁶ There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷ Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you. 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 skillful men. ¹⁰ But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation. ¹¹ You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. ¹² He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ¹³ when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴ Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵ They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.