all will be put to shame ¹  because of a nation that cannot help them, who cannot give them aid or help, but only shame and disgrace.”

Does he argue ¹  with useless ²  talk, with words that have no value in them?

They destroy ¹  my path; they succeed in destroying me ²  without anyone assisting ³  them.

But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ ¹  and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’ ² 

Treasures gained by wickedness ¹  do not profit, but righteousness ²  delivers from mortal danger. ³ 

Wealth does not profit in the day of wrath, ¹  but righteousness delivers from mortal danger. ² 

Who forms a god and casts an idol that will prove worthless? ¹ 

I will denounce your so-called righteousness and your deeds, ¹  but they will not help you.

Who is the Almighty, that ¹  we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray ²  to him?’ ³ 

Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, ¹  for a god that cannot help them at all! ² 

“‘But just look at you! ¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ²  that will not deliver you. ³ 

My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹  They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests ²  because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁴ 

You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty. ¹ 

All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

Persist ¹  in trusting ²  your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited ³  since your youth! Maybe you will be successful ⁴  – maybe you will scare away disaster. ⁵ 

This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the Holy One of Israel: ²  “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.

What good ¹  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ²  What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³  Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁴  and make ⁵  such mute, worthless things?

This is a message ¹  about the animals in the Negev: Through a land of distress and danger, inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ²  by snakes and darting adders, ³  they transport ⁴  their wealth on the backs of donkeys, their riches on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot help them. ⁵ 

Your priests ¹  did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ ²  Those responsible for teaching my law ³  did not really know me. ⁴  Your rulers rebelled against me. Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. ⁵  They all worshiped idols that could not help them. ⁶