Old Testament · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 10

The Sovereignty of God

1Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2Thus says the LORD: To the way of the nations do not learn, and at the signs^a of the heavens do not be dismayed, for the nations are dismayed at them.

3For the statutes^b of the peoples are vanity; for it is a tree that one cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with the axe.
4With silver and with gold he beautifies it; with nails and with hammers they fasten them, that it not totter.
5Like a palm pillar of beaten work they are, and they do not speak; they must be carried, for they do not step. Do not fear them, for they cannot do harm, and also to do good is not in them.
6There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might.
7Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For to You it is fitting; for among all the wise of the nations, and in all their kingdom, there is none like You.
8But in one thing they are brutish and foolish: the instruction of vanities is a tree.
9Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple is their clothing; the work of skilled men they all are.
10But the LORD God is truth; He is the living^c God and the everlasting King; at His wrath the earth trembles, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

11Thus you shall say to them: The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth—these shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.

12He who makes the earth by His power, establishing the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
13At the sound of His giving forth a multitude of waters in the heavens, He causes vapors to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind^d from His treasuries.
14Every man^e is brutish, without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by the carved image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no spirit in them.
15They are vanity, a work of mockery; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for He is the former of all, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the LORD of hosts^f is His name.

The Coming Captivity of Judah

17Gather up from the land your bundle, O you who dwell in the siege. 18For thus says the LORD: Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will distress them, that they may find it.

19Woe to me for my breaking! My wound is grievous; but I said: Surely this is a sickness, and I must bear it.
20My tent is devastated, and all my cords are torn; my sons have gone out from me, and they are no more; there is none to stretch out my tent any longer, and to raise my curtains.
21For the shepherds are brutish, and they have not sought the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.
22A voice of report—behold, it comes—and a great commotion from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling of great sea-creatures^g.
23I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not his own; it is not in a man^h who walks to direct his step.
24Correct me, O LORD, but in judgmentⁱ; not in Your anger, lest You diminish me.
25Pour out Your fury upon the nations that do not know You, and upon the families that do not call on Your name; for they have devoured Jacob—they have devoured him and consumed him, and laid waste his habitation.