Isaiah 44:13-20

131The craftsman of wood extends a measuring line; he outlines it with a marker. He works it with carving knives and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of 2mankind, so that it may sit in a 3house. 14He will cut cedars for himself, and he takes a holm-oak or another oak and lets it grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow. 15Then it becomes something for a person to burn, so he takes one of them and gets warm; he also makes a fire and bakes bread. He also 4makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image and 5bows down before it. 16Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat, he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17Yet the rest of it he 6makes into a god, his carved image. He bows down before it and worships; he also 7prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

18They do not 8know, nor do they understand, for He has 9smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19No one 10remembers, nor is there 11knowledge 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 12I make the rest of it into an 13abomination, 14I bow down before a block of wood!” 20He 1516feeds on ashes; a 17deceived heart has misled him. And he cannot save 18himself, nor say, “19Is there not a lie in my right hand?”