Isaiah 44:12-20

12The 1man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, 2fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and 3his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 134Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of 5man, so that it may sit in a 6house. 14Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a 7cypress or an oak and 8raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 15Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also 9makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and 10falls down before it. 16Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17But the rest of it he 11makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also 12prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

18They do not 13know, nor do they understand, for He has 14smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19No one 15recalls, nor is there 16knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then 17I make the rest of it into an 18abomination, 19I fall down before a block of wood!” 20He 2021feeds on ashes; a 22deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver 23himself, nor say, “24Is there not a lie in my right hand?”