Jeremiah 10:3

¹⁸knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

⁹Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. ¹⁰Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? ¹¹Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. ¹²The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. ¹³The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. ¹⁴He 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 cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he burns it and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. ¹⁶He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” ¹⁸They don’t know, neither do they consider, for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see, and their hearts, that they can’t understand. ¹⁹No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” ²⁰He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

³⁰Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.’”

²¹Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

⁸But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.

²⁰“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.

⁷In praying, don’t use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.

²⁶They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, and nobody answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.

²⁷At noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is deep in thought, or he has gone somewhere, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened.”

²⁸They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off. ⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? ⁶For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

⁵The LORD says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?