Jeremiah 10

Listen to the message the LORD is speaking to you, people of Israel.

1Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Note"LORD" in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH). Ancient Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud in its place, and English Bibles have followed that practice ever since; where the ordinary word for "lord" or "master" appears, it is printed without the capitals.

2Here is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the other nations. Do not be frightened by signs in the sky, even though those nations are frightened by them.

2Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Note"Signs in the sky" means omens read from the heavens, eclipses, comets, unusual movements of the planets and stars. In Babylon this was a trained profession: astrologers kept records and advised kings on what such events foretold. Jeremiah is telling his hearers not to take up that fear.

3The customs of these peoples are worthless. Someone cuts a tree down in the forest, and a craftsman shapes the wood with his tool.

3For 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.

Note"The customs of these peoples" is not about foreign manners in general. Verses 3 to 5 describe one specific practice: making an image of a god out of wood, plating it with metal, and treating it as a god. The Hebrew word behind "worthless" is one Jeremiah uses often; it means something like a puff of breath or vapor, not evil so much as empty, with nothing to it.

4They decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it in place with hammer and nails so that it will not tip over.

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

5Their idols stand up stiff and straight, but they cannot speak. They have to be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them. They cannot harm you, and they cannot help you either."

5They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

NoteThe Hebrew here is uncertain and translators divide. The King James took the phrase to mean the idols stand stiff and straight like a palm trunk; many modern translations read the same words as "like a scarecrow in a cucumber field", a figure propped up in a garden that looks like a person but does nothing. Either way the point of the image is a thing shaped like a living being that cannot move or speak.

6There is no one like you, LORD. You are great, and your name is great in power.

6Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

7Who would not fear you, King of all the nations? That honor belongs to you. Among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

7Who 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.

8But they are completely senseless and foolish. What teaches them is a block of wood, and its lessons are worth nothing.

8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9Hammered sheets of silver are brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. It is the work of a craftsman and of a goldsmith's hands. The idols are dressed in blue and purple, all made by skilled workers.

9Silver spread into plates is brought 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.

NoteTarshish and Uphaz are named as far-off sources of precious metal, the way one might say "silver from the ends of the earth." Tarshish was a distant port reached by long sea voyage, probably in the western Mediterranean; readers knew it chiefly as the place fine metal came from. Uphaz is otherwise unknown and may be a variant spelling of Ophir, the region proverbial for gold. Blue and purple were the most expensive dyes in the ancient world, extracted in tiny quantities from shellfish and normally reserved for royalty and temple cloth, so the idols are dressed like kings.

10But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God and the King who lasts forever. The earth shakes at his anger, and the nations cannot stand up under his fury.

10But 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.

11This is what you are to say to them: "These gods did not make the heavens or the earth. They will disappear from the earth and from under these heavens."

11Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

NoteThis one verse is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew, the only such verse in the book. Aramaic was the common international language of the Near East in Jeremiah's day, the language you would use to speak to foreigners. The verse reads like a short set formula handed to Israelites to say back to the nations around them, in a language those nations would understand.

12He made the earth by his power. He set the world firmly in place by his wisdom, and he stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

12He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

Note"Stretched out the heavens" pictures the sky as a great sheet of tent cloth pulled taut and pegged in place. The comparison would have been immediate to people who put up tents; it recurs throughout the Hebrew prophets.

13When he thunders, the waters in the sky roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far ends of the earth. He makes lightning flash with the rain, and he brings the wind out of his storehouses.

13When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

NoteThe ancient picture is of weather kept in storerooms, the way a household or palace kept grain, oil and treasure locked up until needed. Wind, rain, snow and hail are imagined as stock held in reserve and issued when their owner chooses.

14Every person is senseless and knows nothing. Every goldsmith is put to shame by the image he made, because the metal figures he pours are a lie. There is no breath in them.

14Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15They are worthless, things made to be laughed at. When the time comes for them to be punished, they will be destroyed.

15They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

16The One who is Jacob's share is not like them, because he is the one who formed everything. Israel is the tribe that belongs to him. His name is the LORD of Armies.

16The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

Note"Jacob's share" uses the language of dividing land. When Israel settled Canaan, each tribe received a portion of territory as its inheritance (except the priestly tribe of Levi, who were told that the LORD himself was their portion instead. The phrase here applies that to the whole people: their inheritance is not property but God. The second half reverses it) Israel is the portion that belongs to him. The Hebrew word behind "tribe" also means a rod or staff, which is why the King James reads "the rod of his inheritance." "LORD of Armies" (older English: "LORD of hosts") is a title picturing God at the head of massed armies, whether the armies of Israel or the ranks of heaven.

17Gather up your belongings and carry them out of the land, you who live inside a city under attack.

17Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

18This is what the LORD says: "Look, this time I will fling out the people who live in this land. I will press them hard, so that they will feel it."

18For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

NoteA sling was a leather pouch on two cords, whirled and released to hurl a stone a great distance, an ordinary shepherd's and soldier's weapon. The image is of people flung out of their land in a single motion, the way a stone is slung away and never recovered.

19How terrible this is for me! I am badly injured, and my wound will not heal easily. But I said, "This truly is my sickness, and I have to bear it."

19Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

20My tent is destroyed, and all its ropes are snapped. My children have left me, and they are gone. No one is left to put my tent up again or hang its curtains.

20My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

NoteThe speaker talks as if the whole nation were one household living in a tent: goat-hair cloth held up by poles, stretched tight by ropes running to pegs in the ground, with hangings dividing the inside. Cut the ropes and the whole thing collapses. Pitching and striking a tent took several pairs of hands, so "no one is left to put my tent up again" means the family that would have done it is gone.

21The shepherds who lead the people have become senseless, and they have not looked to the LORD. So they have not done well, and their whole flock is scattered.

21For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

NoteCalling rulers "shepherds" was standard political language across the ancient Near East, used of kings in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Israel alike. It is not a religious metaphor here but the ordinary word for those in charge (kings, officials, priests) and the "flock" is the population they were responsible for.

22Listen! A report is coming, a great rumbling noise from the country to the north. It will leave the cities of Judah empty and ruined, a place where jackals live.

22Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

NoteInvading armies reached Judah from the north even when they came from Babylon in the east, because the direct route lay across impassable desert; armies followed the Euphrates upstream and came down through Syria. "From the north" therefore meant invasion to Jeremiah's hearers. Jackals were scavenging dogs that moved into abandoned sites; naming them is a standard way of saying a city has been emptied of people, its ruins left to wild animals.

23LORD, I know that a person's path is not his own to control. No one who walks can decide his own steps.

23O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

24Correct me, LORD, but do it with fair judgment. Do not do it while you are angry, or you will reduce me to nothing.

24O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

25Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, and on the family groups that do not call on your name. They have eaten Jacob up. They have swallowed him and finished him off, and they have left his homeland in ruins.

25Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

Note"Call on your name" is the ordinary Hebrew expression for worshiping and praying to a god, invoking that god by name in oaths, appeals and sacrifice. To say a people does not call on the LORD's name is to say they have no dealings with him, not that they are ignorant of the word. "Family groups" translates a word for clans or extended kinship groups, here used of the nations as a whole.