Jeremy 10

¹Hear ye the word, which our Lord hath spoken concerning you, o house of Israel.

²Thus saith our Lord: According to the ways of the Gentiles learn not: and of the signs of heaven, which the heathen fear, be not afraid:

³Because the laws of the people are vain: because the work of the hand of the artificer hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe:

⁴with silver & gold he hath decked it: with nails and hammers he hath compacted it, that it fall not asunder.

⁵They are framed after the similitude of a palm tree, & shall not speak: being carried they shall be removed, because they are not able to go. Therefore fear them not, because they can neither do ill nor well.

⁶There is not the like unto thee o Lord: thou art great, and great is thy name in strength.

⁷Who shall not fear thee o King of Nations? For thine is the glory: among all the wise of the Gentiles, & in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.

⁸They shall be proved altogether unwise & foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.

⁹Silver wrapped up is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, & the hands of the coppersmith: hyacinth and purple are their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.

¹⁰But our Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the King everlasting: at his indignation the earth shall be moved: and the Gentiles shall not sustain his threatening.

¹¹Thus then you shall say to them: The gods that made not heaven and earth, let them perish from off the earth, and from these places, that are under heaven.

¹²He that maketh the earth in his strength, prepareth the world in his wisdom, & with his prudence stretcheth out the heavens.

¹³At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, & lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings into rain, & bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

¹⁴Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every crafts-man is confounded in the sculptile: because it is false that he hath melted, and there is no spirit in them.

¹⁵They are vain things, and a work worthy to be laughed at: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like to these: for it is he that formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather thy confusion out of the land, thou that dwellest in besiege.

¹⁸Because thus saith our Lord: Behold I will cast forth far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: & I will afflict them, so that they may not be found.

¹⁹Woe is me for my destruction, my plague is very sore. But I said. Truly this is mine infirmity, and I will bear it.

²⁰My tabernacle is wasted, all my cords are broken in sunder: my children are gone out from me, and are not: there is none to stretch out my tent any more, & to set up my curtains.

²¹Because the Pastors have done foolishly, & have not sought our Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is dispersed.

²²Lo the voice of a bruit cometh, a great commotion from the land of the North: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and an habitation of dragons.

²³I know Lord, that man's way is not his own: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.

²⁴Correct me o Lord, but yet in judgement: and not in thy fury, lest perhaps thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out thine indignation upon the Gentiles, that have not known thee, and upon the Provinces, that have not invocated thy name: because they have eaten Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have dissipated his glory.