:B:9 Good-for-nothing are all idol makers, and useless are the works they prize so much. Their witnesses, blind and igno rant, will be put to shame. 10 Who ever fa shioned a god or cast an idol without hope of gain? See how its devo tees will be ridiculed, for its craftsmen are but humans. 11 Let them all assemble, let them come to court
12 The blacksmith works on an iron image over the fire and beats it into shape with a ham mer. He gets hungry and tired
13 In like manner, the wood carver takes the measurement and marks the out line of an idol, carves it with chisels, giving it a bodily form and a human face that it may live in a shrine. 14 He cut down cedars or perhaps took an oak or cypress from the forest or maybe he planted a cedar which the rain caused to grow. 15 For the common people, that means fuel which they use to warm themselves and to cook their food. But the craftsman carves out of the tree trunk an idol which he worships and before which he bows down. 16 The remaining portion he burns to warm himself
18 They have no knowledge, no discernment. For they have shut their mind to un -derstanding, their heart to all reason. 19 Not one of them has the intelligence to reflect and the sense to say, Half of the log I burned, and on its embers I baked bread and roasted meat. Shall I then make a dirty idol of what remains? Am I to worship a block of wood?
20 Only one of deluded mind can hold on to ashes. Will he not save himself at least and confess, What I hold is only a lie?
21 Remember this, Jacob,
21 for you are my servant, O Israel,
21 I have formed you to be my servant
22 I have blotted out your offenses as a thick cloud,
22 your sins as a mist.
22 Return to me for I am redeeming you.
23 Sing gladly, O heavens,
23 for Yahweh has done this.
23 Shout aloud, O earth below!
23 Burst into song, you mountains,
23 you forests with all your trees!
23 For Yahweh has redeemed Jacob
23 and shown his glory to Israel.
24 Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer,
24 who formed you from the womb:
24 I am Yahweh who made all things,
24 I alone stretched out the heavens,
24 and spread out the earth. Who helped me?
25 I am he who thwarts the omens of false prophets,
25 who makes fools of diviners,
25 who turns the wise back
25 and makes nonsense of their knowledge.
26 I confirm the word of my servant
26 and carry out the plan announced by my messengers.