Jeremiah, starting at chapter 10
{10:1} Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Israel!
{10:2} Thus says the LORD, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and
don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are
dismayed at them. {10:3} For the customs of the peoples are vanity;
for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the
workman with the axe. {10:4} They deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. {10:5}
They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must
be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they
can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good." {10:6} There is none
like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might. {10:7}
Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to
you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their
royal estate, there is none like you. {10:8} But they are together
brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
{10:9} There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from
Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the
hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are
all the work of skillful men. {10:10} But the LORD is the true God; he
is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth
trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.
{10:11} You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from
under the heavens. {10:12} He has made the earth by his power, he has
established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he
stretched out the heavens: {10:13} when he utters his voice, there is
a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and
brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. {10:14} Every man has
become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed
by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is
no breath in them. {10:15} They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the
time of their visitation they shall perish. {10:16} The portion of
Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and
Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: the LORD of Hosts is his name.
{10:17} Gather up your wares out of the land, you who live under
siege. {10:18} For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the
inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that
they may feel it. {10:19} Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is
grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.
{10:20} My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children
are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread
my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. {10:21} For the shepherds
are become brutish, and have not inquired of the LORD: therefore they
have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. {10:22} The
voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the
north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling
place of jackals. {10:23} LORD, I know that the way of man is not in
himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. {10:24} LORD,
correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to
nothing. {10:25} Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know
you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have
devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have
laid waste his habitation.
{11:1} The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, {11:2}
Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem; {11:3} and say to them, Thus says the
LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who doesn't hear the words
of this covenant, {11:4} which I commanded your fathers in the day
that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron
furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I
command you: so you shall be my people, and I will be your God; {11:5}
that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give
them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered
I, and said, Amen, LORD. {11:6} The LORD said to me, Proclaim all
these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem,
saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. {11:7} For I
earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up
out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and
protesting, saying, Obey my voice. {11:8} Yet they didn't obey, nor
turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil
heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant,
