1 The house of Israel, hear ye the word which the Lord spake on you.

2 The Lord saith these things, Do not ye learn after the ways of heathen men, and do not ye dread of the signs of heaven, which signs heathen men dread.

3 For the laws of peoples be vain, for why the work of [the] hands of a craftsman hath cut down with an ax a tree of the forest.

4 He made it fair with silver and gold; with nails and hammers he joined it together, that it be not loosed [atwain].

5  Idols be made in the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak; those [or they] shall be taken and be borne, for those [or they] may not go; there-fore do not ye dread those [or them], for they may neither do evil, neither well.

6 Lord, none is like thee; thou art great, and thy name is great in strength.

7 A! thou king of folks, who shall not dread thee? for why honour is thine among all wise men of heathen men, and in all the realms of them none is like thee.

8 They shall be proved unwise and fools together; the teaching of their vanity is a tree.

9 Silver wrapped is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz; it is the work of a craftsman, and of the hand of a worker in metal; jacinth and purple be the clothing of them; all these things be the work of workmen.

10 Forsooth the Lord is very God; he is God living, and a king everlasting; the earth shall be moved together of his indignation, and heathen men shall not suffer the menacing of him [or his threatening].

11 Therefore thus ye shall say to them, Gods that made not heaven and earth, perish from the earth, and from these things that be under heaven.

12  He is God, that maketh the earth in his strength, that maketh ready the world in his wisdom, and stretcheth forth heavens by his prudence.

13 At his voice he giveth the multitude of waters in heaven, and he raiseth [up] mists from the ends of earth; he maketh lightnings into rain, and leadeth out wind of his treasures/ of his treasuries.

14 Each man is made a fool of [his] knowing, each craftsman is shamed in a graven image; for why that that he welled together is false, and no spirit is in them.

15 Those [or they] be vain, and a work worthy of scorn; those [or they] shall perish in the time of their visitation.

16 The part of Jacob is not like these [or them], for he that formed all things is God of Jacob, and Israel is the rod of his heritage; the Lord of hosts is name to him.

17 Thou that dwellest in besieging, gather from the land thy shame;

18 for the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall cast away far the dwellers of the land in this while; and I shall give tribulation to them, so that they be not found.

19 Woe to me on my sorrow, my wound is full evil; forsooth I said, Plainly this is my sickness, and I shall bear it.

20 My tabernacle is destroyed, all my ropes be broken; my sons went out from me, and be not; none is that shall stretch forth more my tent, and shall raise [up] my skins.

21 For the shepherds did follily, and sought not the Lord; therefore they understood not, and all the flock of them is scattered.

22 Lo! the voice of hearing cometh, and a great moving together from the land of the north, that it set the cities of Judah into wilderness, and a dwelling place of dragons.

23 Lord, I know, that the way of a man is not of him, neither it is of a man that he go, and dress his steps.

24 Lord, chastise thou me; never-theless in doom, and not in thy strong vengeance, lest peradventure thou drive me to nought.

25 Pour out thine indignation on heathen men that knew not thee, and on provinces that called not thy name to help; for they ate Jacob, and devoured him, and wasted him, and destroyed the honour of him.