1Hear the word which יהוה speaks to you, O house of Yisra’ĕl.

2Thus said יהוה, “Do not learn the way of the gentiles,a and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens, for the gentiles are awed by them.b

3“For the prescribed customs of these peoples are worthless, for one cuts a tree from the forest, work for the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

4“They adorn it with silver and gold, they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it does not topple.

5“They are like a rounded post, and they do not speak. They have to be carried, because they do not walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they do no evil, nor is it in them to do any good.”

6There is none like You, O יהוה. You are great, and great is Your Name in might.

7Who would not fear You, O Sovereign of the nations? For this is Your due, for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their reigns, there is none like You.

8They are both brutish and foolish, an instruction of worthlessness is the tree.

9Silver is beaten into plates; it is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the smith; draped in blue and purple; all of them are the work of skilled ones.

10But יהוה is truly Elohim. He is the living Elohim and the everlasting Sovereign. At His wrath the earth shakes, and nations are unable to stand His displeasure.

11Say to them this, “The elaha that did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

12He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

13When He makes His voice heard, there is a roaring of waters in the heavens. And He makes vapours rise from the ends of the earth. The lightnings for rain He has made, and brings wind from His treasuries.

14Everyone is brutish in knowledge; every smith is put to shame by his idol. For his moulded image is falsehood, and there is no spirit in them.

15They are worthless, a work of mockery. In the time of their punishment they perish.

16The Portion of Ya‛aqoḇ is not like these, for He is the Maker of all, and Yisra’ĕl is the tribe of His inheritance – יהוה of hosts is His Name.

17Gather up your bundle from the ground, you who live under siege!

18For thus said יהוה, “See, at this time I am hurling out the inhabitants of the land, and shall distress them, so that they feel it.”

19Woe to me for my breaking! My wound is grievous, but I say, “This is my sickness, and I bear it.

20“My tent has been ravaged, and all my cords have been broken. My children have gone from me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent any more, or to set up my curtains.

21For the shepherds have become brutish, and they have not sought יהוה. Therefore they did not understand, and all their flock scattered.a”

22See, it has come, the voice of a report, and a great shaking out of the land of the north, to make the cities of Yehuḏah a waste, a habitation of jackals.

23O יהוה, I know the way of man is not in himself, it is not for man who walks to direct his own steps.

24O יהוה, chastise me, but with right-ruling – not in Your displeasure, lest You bring me to naught.

25Pour out Your wrath on the gentiles who do not know You, and on the tribes who do not call on Your Name. For they have eaten up Ya‛aqoḇ, devoured him and consumed him, and laid waste his home.a