Gather together and come! Approach together, you refugees from the nations! Those who carry wooden idols know nothing, those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.

“你们从列国逃脱的人，要一同聚集前来。那些抬着雕刻木偶、祷告不能救人之神的，毫无知识。

“你们从列国逃脱的人，要一同聚集前来。那些抬着雕刻的木偶、祈求不能救人之神明的，毫无知识。

“你们从列国逃脱的人，要一同聚集前来。那些抬着雕刻的木偶、祈求不能救人之神明的，毫无知识。

“列国的流亡者啊，你们要聚集到这里来。那些抬着木头神像、向不能救人的神明祷告的人真愚昧！

“列国逃脱的人哪！你们要来集合，一同近前来。那些抬着木头做的偶像，向不能拯救人的神祈求的，真是无知。

“从列国逃脱的人哪，聚集而来，一同近前吧——他们抬着木头雕刻的偶像，向不能拯救人的神祷告，真是无知

你們從列國逃脫的人，要一同聚集前來。那些擡着雕刻木偶、禱告不能救人之神的，毫無知識。

「你們從列國逃脫的人，要一同聚集前來。那些抬着雕刻的木偶、祈求不能救人之神明的，毫無知識。

「你們從列國逃脫的人，要一同聚集前來。那些抬着雕刻的木偶、祈求不能救人之神明的，毫無知識。

「列國的流亡者啊，你們要聚集到這裡來。那些抬著木頭神像、向不能救人的神明禱告的人真愚昧！

“列國逃脫的人哪！你們要來集合，一同近前來。那些抬著木頭做的偶像，向不能拯救人的神祈求的，真是無知。

『列國逃脫的人哪，集合攏來，一同走近前哦！那些抬着木頭雕像的、直禱告那不能救人之神的、毫無知識。

「從列國逃脫的人哪，聚集而來，一同近前吧——他們抬著木頭雕刻的偶像，向不能拯救人的神禱告，真是無知

列邦免難之民、其集而至、惟彼舁其木偶、禱於不能施救之神者、悉屬無知、

列國流離之民、當大和會、群聽斯言、木偶之上帝、不能救民、凡輦斯像而禱之者、其愚甚矣。

爾自列邦得脫者、俱集而至、同就以聽斯言、惟彼攜其木偶、禱不能施救之神者、悉屬無知、

“ Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save.

“ Come together, you people of the nations who escaped from Babylon. Gather together and come into court. Only people who do not know anything would carry around gods that are made out of wood. They pray to false gods that can’t save them.

“ Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

“ Gather together and come, you fugitives from surrounding nations. What fools they are who carry around their wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save!

“ 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.

“ Gather yourselves and come; Come together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge, Who carry around their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save.

“ Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save.

Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that carry the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

“ Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives of the nations. Those who carry their wooden idols, and pray to a god who cannot save, have no knowledge.

Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye[ that are] escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god[ that] cannot save.

“ Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.

All nations gather together, the peoples assemble. Who among them announced this? Who predicted earlier events for us? Let them produce their witnesses to testify they were right; let them listen and affirm,‘ It is true.’

Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They cannot talk. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them because they cannot hurt you. And they do not have any power to help you.”

With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it, saying,‘ Rescue me, for you are my god!’They do not comprehend or understand, for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern.No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:‘ I burned half of it in the fire– yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’He feeds on ashes; his deceived mind misleads him. He cannot rescue himself, nor does he say,‘ Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’

Those who make them will end up like them, as will everyone who trusts in them.

Bel kneels down, Nebo bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals.

Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the LORD to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done.Babylonia had been a gold cup in the LORD’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad.But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed!Foreigners living there will say,‘ We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let’s leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’

The coastlands see and are afraid; the whole earth trembles; they approach and come.They help one another; one says to the other,‘ Be strong!’

Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the LORD our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple.

“ Present your argument,” says the LORD.“ Produce your evidence,” says Jacob’s king.

Those who trust in idols will turn back and be utterly humiliated, those who say to metal images,‘ You are our gods.’”“ Listen, you deaf ones! Take notice, you blind ones!

They say to a wooden idol,‘ You are my father.’ They say to a stone image,‘ You gave birth to me.’ Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. Yet when they are in trouble, they say,‘ Come and save us!’But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them save you when you are in trouble. The sad fact is that you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.

So the LORD, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision.“ Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.”So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand. I made all the nations to whom he sent me drink the wine of his wrath.I made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. Such is already becoming the case!I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; his attendants, his officials, his people,the foreigners living in Egypt; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines, the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod;all the people of Edom, Moab, Ammon;all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon; all the kings of the coastlands along the sea;the people of Dedan, Tema, Buz, all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples;all the kings of Arabia who live in the desert;all the kings of Zimri; all the kings of Elam; all the kings of Media;all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the LORD’s wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it.Then the LORD said to me,“ Tell them that the LORD God of Israel who rules over all says,‘ Drink this cup until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. For I will send wars sweeping through you.’If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, tell them that the LORD who rules over all says‘ You most certainly must drink it!For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. So how can you possibly avoid being punished? You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the LORD who rules over all, affirm it!’

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say,‘ My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say,‘ Yes, I know about them.’

All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

The people of those nations are both stupid and foolish. Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless!

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.Although they claimed to be wise, they became foolsand exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four- footed animals or reptiles.

and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.

So they took a bull, as he had suggested, and prepared it. They invoked the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying,“ Baal, answer us.” But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped around on the altar they had made.At noon Elijah mocked them,“ Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.”So they yelled louder and, in accordance with their prescribed ritual, mutilated themselves with swords and spears until their bodies were covered with blood.Throughout the afternoon they were in an ecstatic frenzy, but there was no sound, no answer, and no response.

For all the nations have fallen from the wine of her immoral passion, and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.”Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,“ Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues,because her sins have piled up all the way to heaven and God has remembered her crimes.Repay her the same way she repaid others; pay her back double corresponding to her deeds. In the cup she mixed, mix double the amount for her.As much as she exalted herself and lived in sensual luxury, to this extent give her torment and grief because she said to herself,‘ I rule as queen and am no widow; I will never experience grief!’For this reason, she will experience her plagues in a single day: disease, mourning, and famine, and she will be burned down with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is powerful!”Then the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up.They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say,“ Woe, woe, O great city, Babylon the powerful city! For in a single hour your doom has come!”Then the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her because no one buys their cargo any longer–cargo such as gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all sorts of things made of citron wood, all sorts of objects made of ivory, all sorts of things made of expensive wood, bronze, iron and marble,cinnamon, spice, incense, perfumed ointment, frankincense, wine, olive oil and costly flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four- wheeled carriages, slaves and human lives.( The ripe fruit you greatly desired has gone from you, and all your luxury and splendor have gone from you– they will never ever be found again!)The merchants who sold these things, who got rich from her, will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment. They will weep and mourn,saying,“ Woe, woe, O great city– dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls–because in a single hour such great wealth has been destroyed!” And every ship’s captain, and all who sail along the coast– seamen, and all who make their living from the sea, stood a long way offand began to shout when they saw the smoke from the fire that burned her up,“ Who is like the great city?”

that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

What good is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? Why would its creator place his trust in it and make such mute, worthless things?The one who says to wood,‘ Wake up!’ is as good as dead– he who says to speechless stone,‘ Awake!’ Can it give reliable guidance? It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life’s breath inside it.But the LORD is in his majestic palace. The whole earth is speechless in his presence!”

All these idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.

Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it.They put it on their shoulder and carry it; they put it in its place and it just stands there; it does not move from its place. Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply; it does not deliver him from his distress.

At that time the crops given by the LORD will bring admiration and honor; the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight to those who remain in Israel.