Jeremiah 10:3–10

³for the customs of the peoples are false.

A tree from the forest is cut down,

and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.

⁴Men deck it with silver and gold;

they fasten it with hammer and nails

so that it cannot move.

⁵Their idols^r are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,

and they cannot speak;

they have to be carried,

for they cannot walk.

Be not afraid of them,

for they cannot do evil,

neither is it in them to do good.”

⁶There is none like thee, O Lord;

thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

⁷Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations?

For this is thy due;

for among all the wise ones of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

there is none like thee.

⁸They are both stupid and foolish;

the instruction of idols is but wood!

⁹Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,

and gold from Uphaz.

They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;

their clothing is violet and purple;

they are all the work of skilled men.

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God;

he is the living God and the everlasting King.

At his wrath the earth quakes,

and the nations cannot endure his indignation.