9Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. 10Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? 11Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.
      12The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 13Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. 14Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 15Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. 16Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”
      18They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” 20He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

      2Thus says the LORD,
            “Do not learn the way of the nations,
            And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens
            Although the nations are terrified by them;
      3For the customs of the peoples are delusion;
            Because it is wood cut from the forest,
            The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
      4“They decorate it with silver and with gold;
            They fasten it with nails and with hammers
            So that it will not totter.
      5“Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,
            And they cannot speak;
            They must be carried,
            Because they cannot walk!
            Do not fear them,
            For they can do no harm,
            Nor can they do any good.”
      6There is none like You, O LORD;
            You are great, and great is Your name in might.
      7Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?
            Indeed it is Your due!
            For among all the wise men of the nations
            And in all their kingdoms,
            There is none like You.
      8But they are altogether stupid and foolish
            In their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood!
      9Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
            And gold from Uphaz,
            The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith;
            Violet and purple are their clothing;
            They are all the work of skilled men.
      10But the LORD is the true God;
            He is the living God and the everlasting King.
            At His wrath the earth quakes,
            And the nations cannot endure His indignation.

11Thus you shall say to them, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
      12It is He who made the earth by His power,
            Who established the world by His wisdom;
            And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.
      13When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
            And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
            He makes lightning for the rain,
            And brings out the wind from His storehouses.
      14Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge;
            Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols;
            For his molten images are deceitful,
            And there is no breath in them.
      15They are worthless, a work of mockery;
            In the time of their punishment they will perish.

      10“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11“Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12‘You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. 13‘So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’
      14“Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.