Jeremiah Chapter 10
God and Idols
1 Listen to the message Yahveh’s giving you, Israel:
2“Don’t pick up the ways other nations live;
don’t let the signs in the sky
terrify you that terrify them.
3 Their customs are delusions.
They cut down a tree in the woods,
and their craftsmen carve it with a tool;
4 they decorate it with silver and gold
and fasten it down with hammer and nails
so it won’t shift.
5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber patch.
They can’t talk;
they can’t walk, so they have to be carried!
Don’t be afraid of them;
they can’t do any good or harm.”
Jer 10:1-5
6 There’s none like you, Yahveh;
you’re great and powerful.
7 Who wouldn’t respect you, King of nations?
It’s your due!
There’s no one like you among
the wise in any kingdom.
8 But their instruction is completely foolish;
they’re nothing but wood!
9 People bring beaten silver from Tarshish
and gold from Uphaz;
craftsmen and goldsmiths make the idols;
they dress them in violet and purple,
artisans’ work.
10 But Yahveh is a real God,
a living God and everlasting King.
The ground shakes at his anger;
the nations can’t endure his indignation.
Jer 10:6-10
11 Tell them this: “The gods that didn’t make earth and sky
will perish from it.”
12 He’s the One that made the earth by his power,
that built the world by his wisdom,
that stretched out the sky by his intelligence.
13 When he speaks, there’s thunder in the rain above;
he makes clouds come up from the horizon,
makes lightning for the rain,
and sends wind out of his storehouses.
14 Every mortal is stupid and ignorant;
idols disgrace their goldsmiths,
because molten images misrepresent;
they can’t even breathe.
15 They’re worthless objects to ridicule;
when they’re punished, they perish.
16 Jacob’s portion is not like them;
his God has made everything;
Israel is his inheritance;
his name is Yahveh of Hosts. Jer 10:11-16
The Looming Destruction
17 Pick up your baggage,
you that live under siege!
18 Yahveh says,
“I’m tossing out the people that live here
and causing them distress
so no one can find them later.”
Jer 10:17-18
19 I’m hurt and my wound can’t heal;
it’s pain I have to bear.
20 My tent’s destroyed;
its guy ropes have snapped.
My children are gone;
they don’t exist anymore.
There’s nobody to set up my tent again
or hang my curtains.
21 The shepherds don’t use any sense;
they don’t look to Yahveh;
so they haven’t prospered,
and their flock has scattered.
22 There’s a loud uproar in the north
that’s headed for the towns in Judah
to make them desolate, dens for jackals.
Jer 10:19-22
Jeremiah’s Prayer
23I know, Yahveh, that we don’t set our own way;
when we walk, we don’t set the direction of our steps.
24 Correct me, but in due measure,
not with your anger, or you’d destroy me.
25 Pour out your anger on nations that don’t know you,
on families that don’t call on you;
because they’ve devastated Jacob
and laid waste his homeland.
Jer 10:23-25