12 The aman shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, 1fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and 2his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary.

13 aAnother shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of bman, so that it may sit in a chouse.

14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a 1cypress or an oak and 2raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow.

15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also amakes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and bfalls down before it.

16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.”

17 But the rest of it he amakes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also bprays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

18 They do not aknow, nor do they understand, for He has bsmeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.

19 No one 1recalls, nor is there aknowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then 2I make the rest of it into an babomination, 3I fall down before a block of wood!”

20 He 1afeeds on ashes; a bdeceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver 2himself, nor say, “cIs there not a lie in my right hand?”