The Sovereignty of God

1Heare the worde of the Lord that he speaketh vnto thee, O thou house of Israel.

2Thus saith the Lord: ye shal not learne after the maner of the heathen, and ye shall not be afraide for the tokens of heauen: for the heathen are afraide of suche.

3Yea all the customes and lawes of the gentiles are nothing but vanitie: They hewe downe a tree in the wood with the handes of the workeman, and fashion it with the axe.

4They couer it ouer with golde or siluer, they fasten it with nailes and hammers, that it moue not.

5It standeth as stiffe as the Palme tree, it can neither speake nor go one foote, but must be borne: Be not ye afraide of suche, for they can do neither good nor euill.

6But there is none lyke vnto thee O Lorde, and great is the name of thy power.

7Who would not feare thee, O king of the gentiles? for thyne is the dominion: for among all the wise men of the gentiles, and in all their kingdomes, there is none that may be likened vnto thee.

8They are altogether brutishe and vnwise in this one thing: wood is the teaching of vanitie.

9Siluer is brought out of Tharsis, and beaten to plates, and gold from Ophir, a worke that is made with the hande of the craftesman, and they are clothed with yelowe silke and scarlet: all these are the worke of cunning men.

10But the Lorde is a true God, a liuing God, and an euerlasting kyng: if he be wroth, the earth shaketh, all the gentiles may not abide his indignation.

11As for their gods thus shall you say to them, they are no gods that made neither heauen nor earth, therfore shall they perishe from the earth, and from all thinges vnder heauen.

12But as for our God he made the earth with his power, and with his wisdome doth he order the whole compasse of the worlde, with his discretion hath he spread out the heauens.

13At his voyce the waters gathered together in the ayre, he draweth vp the cloudes from the vttermost partes of the earth, he turneth lightning to raine, and bringeth foorth the windes out of their treasures.

14His wisdome maketh all men fooles, and confounded be casters of images: for that they cast, is but a vayne thing, and hath no life.

15The vayne craftesmen with their workes that they in their vanitie haue made, shall perishe one with another in time of visitation.

16Neuerthelesse, Iacobs portion is none such: but it is he that hath made all thinges, and Israel is the rod of his inheritaunce: the Lorde of hoastes is his name.

The Coming Captivity of Judah

17Gather vp thy wares out of the land, thou that art in the strong place.

18For thus saith the Lorde: beholde, I wyll now throwe as with a stone sling, the inhabiters of this land at this once, and I wyll bring trouble vpon them, that they shall proue true the wordes that I haue spoken by the prophetes.

19Alas howe am I hurt? alas howe paynefull are my scourges vnto me? for I consider this sorowe by my selfe, and I must suffer it.

20My tabernacle is destroyed, and all my cordes are broken, my chyldren are gone fro me, & can no where be founde: Nowe haue I none to spreade out my tent, nor to set vp my hanginges.

21For the heardmen are become foolishe, and they haue not sought the Lorde: therefore haue they dealt vnwisely with their cattell, and all are scattered abrode.

22Beholde, the noyse is harde at hande, and great sedition out of the north, to make the cities of Iuda a wildernesse, and a dwelling place for dragons.

23Nowe I knowe (O Lord) that it is not in mans power to order his owne wayes, or to rule his owne steppes and goinges.

24Therefore chasten thou me O Lord, but with fauour, and not in thy wrath, lest thou bring me vtterly to naught.

25Powre out thyne indignation vpon the gentiles that knowe thee not, and vpon the people that call not vpon thy name, and that because they haue consumed, deuoured, and destroyed Iacob, and haue made his habitation waste.