Jeremiah 10:2-12

2 Thus saith Jehovah: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them.
3 For the statutes of the peoples are vanity; for [it is] a tree cut out of the forest, worked with a chisel by the hands of the artizan;
4 they deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are as a palm-column of turned work, and they speak not; they are carried, for they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 There is none like unto thee, Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? For to thee doth it appertain; for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
8 But they are one and all senseless and foolish; the teaching of vanities is a stock.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artizan and of the hands of the founder; blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skilful [men].
10 But Jehovah Elohim is truth; he is the living God, and the King of eternity. At his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations cannot abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.
12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Others, 'an axe.'
  • [b]. Or 'wood is an instruction of vanity.'
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.