Isaiah 44:9–20

⁹All makers of idols are nothing,

and the things they treasure are worthless.

Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend,

so they are put to shame.

¹⁰Who fashions a god or casts an idol

which profits him nothing?

¹¹Behold, all his companions will be put to shame,

for the craftsmen themselves are only human.

Let them all assemble and take their stand;

they will all be brought to terror and shame.

¹²The blacksmith takes a tool

and labors over the coals;

he fashions an idol with hammers

and forges it with his strong arms.

Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength;

he fails to drink water and grows faint.

¹³The woodworker extends a measuring line;

he marks it out with a stylus;

he shapes it with chisels

and outlines it with a compass.

He fashions it in the likeness of man,

like man in all his glory,

that it may dwell in a shrine.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars

or retrieves a cypress^c or oak.

He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.

He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.

¹⁵It serves as fuel for man.

He takes some of it to warm himself,

and he kindles a fire

and bakes his bread.

He also fashions it into a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it.

¹⁶He burns half of it in the fire,

and he roasts meat on that half.

He eats the roast and is satisfied.

Indeed, he warms himself and says,

“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

¹⁷From the rest he makes a god, his graven image.

He bows down to it and worships;

he prays to it and says,

“Save me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸They do not comprehend or discern,

for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see

and closed their minds so they cannot understand.

¹⁹And no one considers in his heart,

no one has the knowledge or insight to say,

“I burned half of it in the fire,

and I baked bread on its coals;

I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it?

Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

²⁰He feeds on ashes.

His deluded heart has led him astray,

and he cannot deliver himself or say,

“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”