The Folly of Idolatry

⁹ Those who fashion ^[a]a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be ^(A)put to shame. ¹⁰ Who has fashioned a god or cast ^[b]an idol to ^(B)no profit? ¹¹ Behold, all his companions will be ^(C)put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.

¹² The ^(D)man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, ^[c]fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and ^[d]his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. ^13 (E)Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of ^(F)man, so that it may sit in a ^(G)house. ¹⁴ Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a ^[e]cypress or an oak and ^[f]raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵ Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also ^(H)makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and ^(I)falls down before it. ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷ But the rest of it he ^(J)makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also ^(K)prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸ They do not ^(L)know, nor do they understand, for He has ^(M)smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. ¹⁹ No one ^[g]recalls, nor is there ^(N)knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then ^[h]I make the rest of it into an ^(O)abomination, ^[i]I fall down before a block of wood!” ²⁰ He ^[j](P)feeds on ashes; a ^(Q)deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver ^[k]himself, nor say, “^(R)Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

²⁹ Being then the children of God, we ^(A)ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.