The Sovereignty of God

1Hear ye the word which Jehovah spake to you, O house of Israel:

2Thus said Jehovah, Ye shall not learn according to the way of the nations, and from the signs of the heavens ye shall not be terrified; for the nations will be terrified from them.

3For the laws of the peoples, this vanity: for they cut down a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

4With gold and with silver they will beautify; with nails and with hammers they will make firm and it will not move.

5They are of turned work, as the palm tree, and they shall not speak; being lifted up they shall be lifted up, for they shall not mount up. Ye shall not be afraid of them, for they will not do evil, and also doing good is not with them.

6For none like thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and great thy name in strength.

7Who shall not fear thee, thou king of the nations? for to thee he shall come: for among all the wise of the nations, and among all their kings, from none like thee.

8And in one they will become brutish, and they will be foolish: the tree itself a correction of vanities.

9Silver beaten out shall be brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and the hands of the founder: cerulean purple and red purple their clothing: they all are the work of the wise.

10And Jehovah the God of truth; he the living God, and king eternal: from his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not prevail over his anger.

11Thus shall ye say to them, The gods who made not the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

12He made the earth in his power, setting upright the habitable globe by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens.

13At the voice his giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he will bring the lifting up from the end of the earth; he made lightnings to the rain, and he will bring forth the wind from his treasures.

14Every man was brutish from knowledge: every founder was ashamed from his carved image; for his molten image a falsehood, and no spirit in them.

15They are vanity, the work of delusions: in the time of their reviewing they shall perish.

16The portion of Jacob not as these: for he forming all things, and Israel the rod of his inheritance: Jehovah of armies his name.

The Coming Captivity of Judah

17Gather the bundles out of the land, thou dwelling in the fortress.

18For thus said Jehovah: Behold me slinging out those inhabiting the land at this once, and I pressed upon them so that they shall find.

19Wo to me for my breaking! my blow was sickly; and I said, Surely this a sickness, and I will bear it.

20My tent was laid waste, and all my cords were broken: my sons went forth from me, and they are not: none stretched forth my tent any more, and the place of my curtains.

21For the shepherds were brutish, and they sought not Jehovah: for this they considered not, and all their flock was scattered.

22Behold, a voice of tidings coming, and a great shaking from the land of the north, to set the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling of jackals.

23I knew, O Jehovah, that not to man his way; not to man to go and set right his step.

24Correct me, O Jehovah, but in judgment, not in thy wrath, lest thou shalt make me small.

25Pour out thy wrath upon the nations which knew thee not, and upon the families that called not upon thy name: for they ate up Jacob and consumed him, and they will finish him, and they made desolate his dwelling.