Babylon’s Idols

1Bel is fallen, Nabo is broken downe, whose images were a burthen for the beastes and cattell, to ouerlade them, and to make them weerie.

2They are sunke downe and fallen together, for they may not ease them of their burthen, therfore must they go into captiuitie.

3Hearken vnto me O house Iacob, and all ye that remaine yet of the house of Israel, whom I haue borne from your mothers wombe, and brought you vp from your byrth.

4It is euen I whiche shall beare you vnto your last age: I haue made you, I wyll also norishe you, beare you, and saue you.

5whom wyll ye make me lyke, or to whom wyll ye make me equall or compare me, that I shoulde be like him?

6Take out siluer and gold out of your purses, and way it, and hyre a goldesmith to make a god of it, that men may kneele downe and worship it:

7Yet must he be taken on mens shoulders and borne, and set in his place, that he may stande, and not moue out of his place: And if one crye vnto hym, he geueth no aunswere, and deliuereth not the man that calleth vpon hym from his trouble.

8Consider this well, and be ashamed: go into your owne selues.

9Remember the thinges that are past since the beginning of the worlde, that I am God, and that there is els no God, yea and that there is nothing like vnto me.

10In the beginning of a thing I shewe the ende therof, & I tell before thinges that are not yet come to passe: My deuise standeth stedfastly stablished, and I fulfill all my pleasure.

11I call a byrde out of the east, and the man by whom my counsayle shalbe fulfilled out of straunge countreys, as I haue spoken, so wyll I bryng to passe, assoone as I thinke to deuise a thing, I do it.

12Heare me O ye that are of an hye stomacke, but farre from righteousnesse:

13I shall bryng foorth my righteousnesse, it is not farre, and my health shall not tary long away: I wyll lay health in Sion, and in Israel my glory.