The true God compared with the people’s idols
“Do not learn the way of the nations 📖,
and do not be dismayed at the signs
in the heavens 📖, though the nations
are dismayed at them.
3 📚For the customs of the peoples
are worthless;
for one cuts a tree from the forest
with an axe, the work of the hands
of a craftsman.
4 📚They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with nails and
with hammers,
so that it does not totter.
5 📚They are upright like
the palm tree, but do not speak.
They must be carried, because they
cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
and it is not in them to do good”.
6 📚For there is no one like you,
O LORD. You are great,
and your name is great in power.
7 📚Who would not fear you,
O King 📖 of nations? For this is your due.
For among all the wise men
of the nations, and in all their kingdoms,
there is no one like you.
8 📚But they are altogether 📖 senseless
and foolish;
their worthless teaching is about
wooden idols.
9 📚Silver hammered into plates is brought
from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz, the work
of the craftsman,
and of the hands of the goldsmith.
Their clothing is of blue and purple;
they are all the work of skillful men.
10 📚But the LORD is the true God;
he is the living God, and
everlasting king.
At his wrath 📖 the earth trembles,
and the nations cannot stand before
his indignation.
10:6-10 Jeremiah speaks as all the writers of the Bible do on the subject of God and idols.⚜
11 📚“Thus shall you say to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under these heavens”.
10:11 This is what Jeremiah was commanded to tell the nations which worshiped idols. This verse is not in Hebrew but Aramaic, a language which was more likely to be understood by some of those nations than Hebrew.⚜
12 📚He has made the earth by his power,
he has established the world
by his wisdom,
and has stretched out the heavens
by his understanding.
13 📚When he utters his voice,
there is a roar of waters
in the heavens,
and he causes the vapours to ascend
from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning flashes with rain,
and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
14 📚Every man is senseless and
without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is put to shame
by carved images,
for his cast metal image is a lie,
and there is no breath in them.
15 📚They are worthless,
and the product of error.
In the time of their punishment
they will perish.
10:14-15 Verse 8.⚜
16 📚The Portion of Jacob 📖 is not like them;
for he is the maker of all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.
The LORD of hosts 📖 is his name.
10:9-16 This is the difference between God and gods. The gods are made by men. God made the heavens and the earth. The gods are useless. God is the eternal King of the universe. They are dead and will perish from the world. He is the Immortal One.⚜
The coming destruction and Jeremiah’s prayer
17 📚Gather up your goods to go
out of the land,
O inhabitant of the fortress.
18 📚For thus says the LORD, “See,
at this time I will throw out the inhabitants
of the land,
and will distress them,
that they may find this true”.
19 📚Woe is me for my injury!
My wound is grievous.
But I said, “Truly this is a grief,
and I must bear it”.
20 📚My tent is ruined, and all my ropes
are broken.
My children have gone away from me,
and are no more.
There is no longer anyone to stretch
out my tent,
and to set up my curtains.
10:19-20 Jeremiah laments for the people of Judah and Jerusalem as if the destruction had already come. He himself had neither wife nor children (Jer 16:2).⚜
21 📚For the shepherds 📖 have become
senseless,
and have not sought the LORD;
therefore they will not prosper,
and all their flocks will be scattered.
22 📚See, the sound of the report has come,
and a great commotion out
of the north country,
to make the cities of Judah desolate
and a den of jackals.
23 📚O LORD, I know that the way
of man is not in himself;
it is not in man who walks
to direct his steps.
10:23 Ps 37:23; Prov 3:5-6; 16:9; 20:24. A person cannot determine what is going to happen to him, and he should not try to direct his own life without God.⚜
24 📚O LORD, correct me, but with justice;
not in your anger, or you will bring me
to nothing.
25 📚Pour out your fury on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the families that do not call
on your name, for they have eaten up Jacob,
and devoured him, and consumed him,
and have made his dwelling place desolate.
10:23-25 Jeremiah prays that God will deal justly both with himself and ruined Judah and the nations that have destroyed the country.⚜