Isaiah 44:12–20

¹²The ^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.

^13aAnother 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.

¹⁴Surely 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.

¹⁵Then 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.

¹⁶Half 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.”

¹⁷But 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.”

¹⁸They 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.

¹⁹No 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!”

²⁰He ^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?”