17  ^eThey shall eat up your harvest and your food;

they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;

they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;

they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;

your ^ffortified cities in which you trust

they shall beat down with the sword.”

5  Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man ^bwho trusts in man

and makes flesh his strength,¹

whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6  ^cHe is like a shrub in the desert,

^dand shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

in ^ean uninhabited salt land.

7  ^f“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

^gwhose trust is the Lord.

8  ^hHe is like a tree planted by water,

that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

13  “Therefore thus says the Lord:

^dAsk among the nations,

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel

has done ^ea very horrible thing.

14  Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion?²

Do the mountain waters run dry,³

the cold flowing streams?

15  ^fBut my people have forgotten me;

they make offerings to ^gfalse gods;

they made them stumble in their ways,

^hin the ancient roads,

and to walk into side roads,

ⁱnot the highway,

16  making their land ^ja horror,

a thing ^jto be hissed at forever.

^kEveryone who passes by it is horrified

^land shakes his head.

17  ^mLike the east wind ⁿI will scatter them

before the enemy.

^oI will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.”

19  Hear me, O Lord,

and ^slisten to the voice of my adversaries.

20  ^tShould good be repaid with evil?

Yet ^uthey have dug a pit for my life.

^vRemember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

21  Therefore ^wdeliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless ^xand widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

22  ^yMay a cry be heard from their houses,

when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

For ^uthey have dug a pit to take me

^zand laid snares for my feet.

23  Yet ^ayou, O Lord, know

all their plotting to kill me.

^bForgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.

“Learn not the way of the nations,

nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens

because the nations are dismayed at them,

3  ^ffor the customs of the peoples are vanity.¹

^gA tree from the forest is cut down

and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.

4  ^hThey decorate it with silver and gold;

ⁱthey fasten it with hammer and nails

so that it cannot move.

5  Their idols² are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,

and ^jthey cannot speak;

^kthey have to be carried,

for they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them,

^lfor they cannot do evil,

neither is it in them to do good.”

6  ^mThere is none like you, O Lord;

you are great, and your name is great in might.

7  ⁿWho would not fear you, O King of the nations?

For this is your due;

for among all the wise ones of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

there is none like you.

8  ^oThey are both ^pstupid and foolish;

the instruction of idols is but wood!

9  ^qBeaten silver is brought from ^rTarshish,

and gold from ^sUphaz.

^qThey are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;

their clothing is violet and purple;

^tthey are all the work of skilled men.

10  ^uBut the Lord is the true God;

^vhe is the living God and the everlasting King.

At his wrath the earth quakes,

and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

12  ^yIt is he who ^zmade the earth by his power,

^zwho established the world by his wisdom,

and ^aby his understanding stretched out the heavens.

13  ^bWhen he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,

^cand he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

^cHe makes lightning ^dfor the rain,

^cand he brings forth the wind ^efrom his storehouses.

14  ^fEvery man is stupid and without knowledge;

^gevery goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,

for his images are false,

^hand there is no breath in them.

15  They are worthless, a work of delusion;

at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

16  Not like these is he who is ⁱthe portion of Jacob,

for he is the one who formed all things,

^jand Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;

^kthe Lord of hosts is his name.

17  ^lGather up your bundle from the ground,

O you who dwell under siege!

18  For thus says the Lord:

^m“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land

at this time,

ⁿand I will bring distress on them,

that they may feel it.”

19  Woe is me because of my hurt!

^oMy wound is grievous.

But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,

and I must bear it.”

20  ^pMy tent is destroyed,

and all my cords are broken;

my children have gone from me,

^qand they are not;

there is no one to spread my tent again

and ^pto set up my curtains.

21  ^rFor the shepherds ^sare stupid

and do not inquire of the Lord;

therefore they have not prospered,

^tand all their flock is scattered.

22  A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—

^ua great commotion out of the north country

to make ^vthe cities of Judah a desolation,

^va lair of jackals.

23  ^wI know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,

that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

24  ^xCorrect me, O Lord, but in justice;

not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

25  ^yPour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,

and on the peoples that call not on your name,

^zfor they have devoured Jacob;

they have devoured him and consumed him,

and have laid waste his habitation.

7  For, ^gbecause you trusted in your works and your treasures,

you also shall be taken;

and ^hChemosh ⁱshall go into exile

with ^jhis priests and his officials.