38. They cannot offer any mercy or give help to widows or orphans.
39. These things made of wood and covered with silver and gold are as powerless as stone taken from the mountains; and the people who worship them will be put to shame.
40. How can anyone think that they are gods or call them gods?The Babylonians bring dishonour on their own gods.
41. When someone cannot speak, they take him to the temple and ask Bel to give him the power of speech, as if Bel could understand anything.
42. But even when the people realize that their gods cannot help, they are stupid enough to go on worshipping them.
43. Not only that, but women wrap cords round themselves and sit beside the road burning incense and offering themselves as prostitutes. When one of them is taken off for sex, she returns to ridicule the woman next to her who was not beautiful enough to be chosen.
44. Everything about these idols is false. How can anyone think that they are gods or call them gods?
45. Woodworkers and goldsmiths make these gods, so they can never be anything other than what these people want them to be.
46. Even their makers do not live long lives, so how are they able to create gods?
47. These people leave nothing but deceit and disgrace as an inheritance for future generations.
48. When wars and disturbances come, the priests plan where they can go into hiding with their gods.
49. These idols are helpless in the face of wars and disturbances. Why can't people realize that these idols are not gods?
50. These idols are nothing more than wood covered with silver and gold; one day it will be clear that they are really not gods at all.
51. All nations and kings will realize that idols are nothing more than the work of human hands. They do not have the power of a god,
52. and anyone should know that they are not really gods.
53. These gods can never make anyone a king or bring rain.
54. They can't make decisions about their own affairs or give justice to someone who has been wronged; they can do absolutely nothing. They are as useless as crows flying about in the air.
55. When a temple catches fire, the priests run away to save themselves, while the gods made of wood and covered with silver and gold are left to burn like wooden beams.