¹⁹ And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction.

²⁰ And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

¹¹ This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens.

³ For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.

⁴ They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved.

⁵ It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good.

⁶ There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power.

¹ Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on the beasts and on the cattle: the things which you took about have become a weight to the tired beast.

² They are bent down, they are falling together: they were not able to keep their images safe, but they themselves have been taken prisoner.

¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his pictured image: he goes down on his face before it, giving worship to it, and making prayer to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you are my god.

⁹ Those who make a pictured image are all of them as nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so they will be put to shame.

¹⁰ Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image in which there is no profit.

²⁹ Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing and of no value: their metal images are of no more use than wind.

²⁴ But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods.

⁷ So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it together with nails, so that there might be no slipping.

¹⁹ The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it.

²⁰ The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved.

²¹ Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was placed on its base?

¹⁸ Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria? and have they kept Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰ Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their country from falling into my hand, to give cause for the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my hand?

¹⁴ The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction on them, so that the memory of them is dead.

⁹ Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images, whose pictured images were more in number than those of Jerusalem and Samaria;

¹¹ So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do to Jerusalem and her images.

⁴ Their images are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

⁵ They have mouths, but no voice; they have eyes, but they see not;

⁶ They have ears, but no hearing; they have noses, but no sense of smell;

⁷ They have hands without feeling, and feet without power of walking; and no sound comes from their throat.

⁸ Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone who puts his faith in them.

²¹ And the Philistines, when they went in flight, did not take their images with them, and David and his men took them away.

⁶ The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will be broken into bits.