1. Hear you the word which the LORD speaks unto you, O house of Israel:
2. Thus says the LORD,
3. For the customs of the people are vain: 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 moves not.
5. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6. Since as there is none like unto you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.
7. Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you is it due: since among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto you.
8. But they are altogether senseless and foolish: the wooden idol is a doctrine of vanities.
9. Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman, and of the hands of the goldsmith: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.
10. But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to endure his indignation.
11. Thus shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
12. He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at his discretion.