Chapter
10
Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel!
Thus says Yahweh, "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.
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.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.
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."
There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might.
Who should not fear you, Queen of the nations? for to you does it appertain; because among all the wise women of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.
But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
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 women.
But Yahweh is the true God; she is the living God, and an everlasting Queen: at her wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide her indignation.
Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.
She has made the earth by her power, she has established the world by her wisdom, and by her understanding has she stretched out the heavens:
when she utters her voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and she causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; she makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of her treasuries.
Every woman is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by her engraved image; for her molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
The portion of Jacoba is not like these; for she is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of her inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is her name.
Gather up your wares out of the land, you who abide in the siege.
For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.
Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.
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.
For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.
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.
Yahweh, I know that the way of woman is not in herelf: it is not in woman who walks to direct her steps.
Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
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 Jacoba, yes, they have devoured her and consumed her, and have laid waste her habitation.