The folly of idolatry

9 Makers of idols are all an illusion,

and profitless all are the idols they dote on;

no vision or insight have whose adore them,

and so in the end they will come but to shame.

10 (The fool who believes) he has fashioned a god,

has but fashioned a profitless metal image.

11 The magical arts are all put to shame,

the words of enchantment are only human.

The worshippers all, when they stand assembled,

will tremble and come to confusion together.

12 The smiths prepare it over the coals,

and into the shape that is fitting he hammers it,

working it up with his sturdy arm.

Then hunger comes over him – feeble he grows,

or faint, if so be that he drinks no water.

13 The carpenter stretches his measuring-line,

with a stylus he traces the shape of the image,

and carves it with tools human likeness,

a fair human likeness, to rest in a chapel.

14 Forth a man goes to cut himself timber;

from the forest he chooses a plane or an oak,

which the Lord did plant, and the rain has nourished

for men to make use of as fuel for kindling.

15 He sets it ablaze and he warms himself,

or he kindles a fire, and bakes bread;

or he makes it into a god and bows down to it,

fashions an image and falls down before it.

16 One half of the wood in the fire he burns,

then he roasts flesh on the embers therefrom;

whereafter he eats the roast to his fill,

then he warms himself, and he says, ‘Ha! Ha!

Now I am warm, I feel the glow.’

17 The rest of it then he makes into a god –

to an image, and bows down prostate before it.

He prays to it, and his prayer is this:

‘Deliver you me, for you are my god.’

18 No insight has he, and no power of discernment,

his eyes are besmeared, that he cannot see,

and his mind is sealed past understanding.

19 He suffers never his thoughts to ponder,

he has not the sense or the insight to say,

‘One half thereof in the fire I have burned,

and bread I have baked on the embers therefrom;

flesh I have roasted and eaten: and then

of the rest should I make a detestable image,

and bow myself down to a block of wood?’

20 Who takes delight in combustible idols

is led far astray by delusion of heart:

he cannot deliver himself, and confess

that his hand has been grasping an utter delusion.