¹⁴ He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest: he plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.

²⁰ He who is too impoverished for [such] an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, that shall not be moved.

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.

⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

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."

⁶ There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might.

⁷ Who should not fear you, King of the nations? for to you does it appertain; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.

⁸ But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.

¹² My people consult with their wooded idol, And answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful to their God.

¹⁹ Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.