But where are your gods you made for yourself? Let them rise up and save you in your time of disaster if they can, for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.
Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, Judah, and the altars you have set up to Shame , #– #altars to burn incense to Baal #– #as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem.
‘Come, gather together, and approach, you fugitives of the nations. Those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a god who cannot save have no knowledge.
They lift it to their shoulder and bear it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands; it does not budge from its place. They cry out to it but it doesn’t answer; it saves no one from his trouble.
Israel is a lush vine; it yields fruit for itself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars.
However, Elisha said to King Joram of Israel, ‘What do we have in common? Go to the prophets of your father and your mother! ’ But the king of Israel replied, ‘No, because it is the Lord who has summoned these three kings to hand them over to Moab.’
‘I will pronounce my judgements against them for all the evil they did when they abandoned me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands.
Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they have been burning incense to, but they certainly will not save them in their time of disaster.
What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes worthless idols that cannot speak.
Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up! or to mute stone: Come alive! Can it teach? Look! It may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.
When you cry out, let your collection of idols rescue you! The wind will carry all of them off, a breath will take them away. But whoever takes refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.