Audite verbum quod locutus est Dominus super vos, domus Israël.

Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.

Listen, men of Israel, to the Lord’s utterance concerning you.

Hæc dicit Dominus: Juxta vias gentium nolite discere, et a signis cæli nolite metuere, quæ timent gentes,

Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear:

Thus says the Lord: Do not learn to follow Gentile ways, or be dismayed by portents in the heavens, as the Gentiles are.

quia leges populorum vanæ sunt. Quia lignum de saltu præcidit opus manus artificis in ascia:

For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.

How empty the observances the heathen use! What is the stuff upon which the carver works but a trunk of wood, felled by an axe out in the forest?

argento et auro decoravit illud: clavis et malleis compegit, ut non dissolvatur:

He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.

Only he has tricked it out with gold and silver, hammer and nail must do their work, lest it should fall to pieces.

in similitudinem palmæ fabricata sunt, et non loquentur: portata tollentur, quia incedere non valent. Nolite ergo timere ea, quia nec male possunt facere, nec bene.

They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go. Therefore fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.

Idols cunningly plated as palm-trees, yet dumb as they, and men must carry them to and fro, for movement they have none! To these give no reverence; they can neither mar nor make thee.

Non est similis tui, Domine: magnus es tu, et magnum nomen tuum in fortitudine.

There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great, and great is thy name in might.

No, Lord, thou hast no rival; so great thou art, so great is the sovereignty of thy name.

Quis non timebit te, o Rex gentium? tuum est enim decus: inter cunctos sapientes gentium, et in universis regnis eorum, nullus est similis tui.

Who shall not fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.

King of all nations, how should we not fear thee in that majesty of thine? Boast the world as it will of wisdom or of empire, none can rival thee.

Pariter insipientes et fatui probabuntur: doctrina vanitatis eorum lignum est.

They shall be all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.

Ah, folly and blindness, ah, fond teaching, lifeless as wood itself!

Argentum involutum de Tharsis affertur, et aurum de Ophaz: opus artificis et manus ærarii. Hyacinthus et purpura indumentum eorum: opus artificum universa hæc.

Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith: violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.

Ay, bring plates of silver from Tharsis, gold from Ophaz, it is all man’s work, fresh from the smithy; bring robes of blue and purple, they are man’s work still!

Dominus autem Deus verus est, ipse Deus vivens, et rex sempiternus. Ab indignatione ejus commovebitur terra, et non sustinebunt gentes comminationem ejus.

But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.

But the Lord is God in good earnest, a God that lives, that has eternal dominion, and can make earth tremble with his frown, strike the nations powerless when he threatens them.

Sic ergo dicetis eis: Dii qui cælos et terram non fecerunt, pereant de terra et de his quæ sub cælo sunt!

Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those places that are under heaven.

No place on earth or under heaven, you must tell the nations, for gods that could fashion neither heaven nor earth.

Qui facit terram in fortitudine sua, præparat orbem in sapientia sua, et prudentia sua extendit cælos:

He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.

Power that made the earth, wisdom that orders nature, foresight that spread out the heavens!

ad vocem suam dat multitudinem aquarum in cælo, et elevat nebulas ab extremitatibus terræ: fulgura in pluviam facit, et educit ventum de thesauris suis.

At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

At the sound of his voice, what mustering of the waters overhead! He summons up the cloud-wrack from the world’s end, turns the lightning into a rain-storm, brings the winds out of his store-house;

Stultus factus est omnis homo a scientia: confusus est artifex omnis in sculptili, quoniam falsum est quod conflavit, et non est spiritus in eis.

Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.

how puny, then, is man’s skill, how sorry a thing is the carver’s workmanship; after all his pains, only a lifeless counterfeit!

Vana sunt, et opus risu dignum: in tempore visitationis suæ peribunt.

They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

Fond imaginations, fantastic figures, when the time comes for reckoning, they will be heard of no more.

Non est his similis pars Jacob: qui enim formavit omnia, ipse est, et Israël virga hæreditatis ejus: Dominus exercituum nomen illi.

The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

Not such the worship that is the heirloom of Jacob’s line; their God is the God who made all things, Israel his patrimony, the Lord of hosts his name.

Congrega de terra confusionem tuam, quæ habitas in obsidione:

Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege.

Take up from the ground, poor besieged one, thy load of shame.

quia hæc dicit Dominus: Ecce ego longe projiciam habitatores terræ in hac vice, et tribulabo eos ita ut inveniantur.

For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that they may be found.

This time, the Lord says, I mean to hurl them far away, the dwellers in this land, and great distress shall be theirs, that they may be found …

Væ mihi super contritione mea: pessima plaga mea. Ego autem dixi: Plane hæc infirmitas mea est, et portabo illam.

Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.

Alas, for my wounding, for the grievous hurt that is mine! Hitherto I had thought to bear my sickness, if this were all;

Tabernaculum meum vastatum est; omnes funiculi mei dirupti sunt: filii mei exierunt a me, et non subsistunt. Non est qui extendat ultra tentorium meum, et erigat pelles meas.

My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

but now what am I? A tent broken down, all its ropes severed: all my citizens have deserted me, and are no more to be found; who shall raise the pole, who shall stretch the curtains now?

Quia stulte egerunt pastores, et Dominum non quæsierunt: propterea non intellexerunt, et omnis grex eorum dispersus est.

Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered.

And the cause of it? Unskilful shepherds that would have no recourse to the Lord; see how their art has failed them, and all the flock is scattered far and wide!

Vox auditionis ecce venit, et commotio magna de terra aquilonis: ut ponat civitates Juda solitudinem, et habitaculum draconum.

Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.

A sound comes to me that brings tidings with it, a great stir from the north country; all Juda is to become a desert, a lair for serpents now.

Scio, Domine, quia non est hominis via ejus, nec viri est ut ambulet, et dirigat gressus suos.

I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.

Lord, I know it well enough, it is not for man to choose his lot; not human wisdom guides our steps aright.

Corripe me, Domine, verumtamen in judicio, et non in furore tuo, ne forte ad nihilum redigas me.

Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in thy fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.

Chasten me, Lord, but with due measure kept; not as thy anger demands, or thou wilt grind me to dust.

Effunde indignationem tuam super gentes quæ non cognoverunt te, et super provincias quæ nomen tuum non invocaverunt: quia comederunt Jacob, et devoraverunt eum, et consumpserunt illum, et decus ejus dissipaverunt.

Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.

Pour out this indignation of thine upon the nations that do not acknowledge thee, on the tribes that never invoke thy name; by whom Jacob is devoured, devoured and devastated, and all his pride scattered to the winds.