Jeremías 10

The idols and the living God

¹Hear the word that the LORD has spoken to you, house of Israel. ²The LORD says this: Do not take up the ways of the nations, \q and do not be terrified by signs in the sky, \q though the nations are terrified by them. ³The customs of the peoples are empty breath: \q a tree is cut down from the forest \q and worked by a craftsman’s hands with his tool. ⁴He decorates it with silver and gold; \q they fix it in place with hammer and nails so that it will not topple over. ⁵Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, they cannot speak; \q they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. \q Do not be afraid of them: they can do no harm, \q and they have no power to do good either.^a

⁶No one is like you, LORD; \q you are great, and your name is great in power.^{b 7}Who would not fear you, King of the nations? \q That is your due. \q Among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you. ⁸They are senseless and foolish, all of them alike; \q the teaching of empty idols is only a block of wood.^{c 9}Silver hammered into sheets is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz; \q they are the work of a craftsman and the hands of a goldsmith. \q Their robes are blue and purple; \q every one of them is the work of experts.^{d 10}But the LORD is God in truth; \q he is the living God, the eternal King. \q When he is angry, the earth quakes, \q and the nations cannot withstand his fury.

¹¹This is what you are to say to them: \q “The gods that did not make heaven and earth \q will perish from the earth and from beneath these heavens.”^e

¹²It is he who made the earth by his power, \q who set the world firm by his wisdom, \q and by his understanding spread out the heavens. ¹³When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; \q he raises the clouds from the far edges of the earth. \q He makes lightning flash with the rain \q and brings the wind out of his storehouses. ¹⁴Everyone proves senseless and ignorant; \q every goldsmith is shamed by his idol, \q for the images he casts are a fraud, with no breath in them. ¹⁵They are empty breath, a work to be laughed at; \q when the time comes to punish them, they will perish. ¹⁶The God who is Jacob’s portion is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things, \q and Israel is the tribe he holds as his own; \q the LORD of Armies is his name.

Pack your bundle for exile

¹⁷Pick up your bundle to leave the land, \q you who live under siege.

¹⁸For the LORD says this: \q This time I am about to sling out the people of the land; \q I will hem them in so that they feel it.^f

¹⁹Woe is me because of my injury! \q My wound is severe. \q But I said, “This is truly a sickness, and I must bear it.”^{g 20}My tent is destroyed, \q and all its ropes are snapped. \q My children have gone from me and are no more; \q there is no one left to pitch my tent again \q or to hang up my curtains. ²¹For the shepherds have turned senseless \q and have not sought the LORD; \q so they have had no success, \q and all their flock is scattered.

²²Listen! A report! Here it comes: \q a great rumbling from the land of the north, \q to turn the cities of Judah into a wasteland, a haunt of jackals.

A prayer for just correction

²³I know, LORD, \q that a person’s way is not in their own hands; \q no one who walks can set the course of their own steps. ²⁴Correct me, LORD, but in just measure, \q not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out your fury on the nations that have not known you, \q on the peoples \q that never call on your name. \q For they have swallowed up Jacob, swallowed him and finished him off, \q and left his homeland desolate.