Jeremiah 10
‘Do not copy the way that people of other
They are afraid of strange things that they see in the sky.
But you must not be afraid of those things.
They cut down a tree in the forest.
A worker uses his tools to make it into an
to make it look beautiful.
He uses
so that it will not fall down.
They are like scarecrows that a farmer puts in his field of vegetables.
The idols cannot walk,
so people have to carry them.
So do not be afraid of them.
They cannot hurt you.
And they do not have any power to help you.’
You are great and your name shows your power.
the King who rules all the nations.
You
There is nobody like you anywhere in the world.
Among all the
and among all their kings,
there is no one like you.
They think that wooden idols can teach them something!
They bring gold from Uphaz.
Workers who know how to use wood and metal
make the idols look beautiful.
They put valuable blue and
Workers who have special skills do this.
He is the God who is alive.
He is the King who rules for ever.
When he is angry, the earth
None of the nations can stop his anger.
‘Your gods did not make the earth or the sky.
They will disappear completely from everywhere on earth
and everywhere in the sky.’
He used his
He knew how to put the sky to cover the earth.
the water in the sky
He causes clouds to rise from the far places of the earth.
He causes bright
He opens his rooms so that the wind comes out
and it blows everywhere.
They do not understand what they are doing.
The men who make idols will be ashamed.
They make
None of their idols have the
When the time for their
God will destroy them.
is not like those idols.
He
He chose the Israelites as the people who would belong to him.
His name is the Lord Almighty.
God will soon punish the people of Judah
and they are ready to attack you.
So get all your things together.
Prepare to leave your country.
‘I will now throw out the people who live in this land.
I will bring much trouble to them,
and they will be in pain.’
We have received a very bad
We thought, “We are very ill,
but one day we will get better.”
They have broken the
Our children have gone,
and none of them remain.
There is nobody still alive
who can help us build our homes again.
They do not ask the Lord for his
So they have failed to take care of us,
and all their people have
There is the noise of a great army in the north.
It is marching towards us!
It is coming to attack the towns of Judah.
It will make them
Only wild animals will live in them.
Nobody can decide what will happen to them.
but do it carefully.
Please do not
That would be the end of us.
Be angry with the people who do not
Those are the people who have destroyed Jacob's
They have killed our people.
They have destroyed our land and our homes.’