1-5. Listen to the Message that God is sending your way, House of Israel. Listen most carefully:“Don’t take the godless nations as your models.Don’t be impressed by their glamour and glitz,no matter how much they’re impressed.The religion of these peoplesis nothing but smoke.An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down,then shaped by a woodsman’s ax.They trim it with tinsel and balls,use hammer and nails to keep it upright.It’s like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can’t talk!Dead wood that has to be carried—can’t walk!Don’t be impressed by such stuff.It’s useless for either good or evil.”
10. But God is the real thing—the living God, the eternal King.When he’s angry, Earth shakes.Yes, and the godless nations quake.
11-15. “Tell them this, ‘The stick godswho made nothing, neither sky nor earth,Will come to nothingon the earth and under the sky.’”But it is God whose power made the earth,whose wisdom gave shape to the world,who crafted the cosmos.He thunders, and rain pours down.He sends the clouds soaring.He embellishes the storm with lightnings,launches wind from his warehouse.Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish,god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!Their gods are frauds—dead sticks,deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.When the fires of judgment come, they’ll be ashes.
16. But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing.He put the whole universe togetherAnd pays special attention to Israel.His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
17-18. Grab your bags,all you who are under attack.God has given notice:“Attention! I’m evictingEveryone who lives here,And right now—yes, right now!I’m going to press them to the limit,squeeze the life right out of them.”