Learn not the way of the heathen,
and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
for the heathen are dismayed at them.
³ For the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth 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 move not.
⁵ They are upright as the palm tree,
but speak not:
they must needs be borne [to carry they are being carried],
because they cannot go.
Be not afraid of them;
for they cannot do evil,
neither also is it in them to do good.

⁶ Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD;
thou art great,
and thy name is great in might.
⁷ Who would not fear thee,
O King of nations?
for to thee doth it appertain:
forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like unto thee.
⁸ But they are altogether brutish and foolish:
the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
⁹ Silver spread into plates
is bought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the workman,
and of the hands of the founder:
blue and purple is their clothing:
they are all the work of cunning men.
¹⁰ But the LORD is the true God,
he is the living God,
and an everlasting king:
at his wrath the earth shall tremble,
and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.