The Koine Bible

Because of the sins which you have sinned before God, you will be brought to Babylon as captives by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians.

So when you have entered into Babylon, you will be there for many years and for a long time, until seven generations; and after this I will lead you out from there with peace

But now you will see in Babylon gods of silver and of gold and of wood, being lifted on shoulders, showing fear to the nations

Be then also afraid, lest you too, having been made like the foreigners, be made like them, and fear take hold of you because of them.

When you see a crowd before and behind them worshiping them, and say in your mind, It is fitting for you to worship, Master

For my angel is with you, both seeking your souls.

For their tongue is polished by a craftsman, and they themselves are overlaid with gold and overlaid with silver; yet they are false and are not able to speak

And as for a maiden fond of adornment, taking gold they make crowns upon the heads of their gods

And there is also when the priests, taking away from their gods gold and silver, will use it up for themselves, but they will also give from them to the prostitutes upon the roof.

and they adorn them as men with garments, silver and gold and wooden gods; but these do not save themselves from rust and moths

though they are clothed in purple garments, they wipe their faces because of the dust from the house, which is more upon them

And he has a scepter, like a man, a judge of the land, who will not destroy the one sinning against him

and he has a dagger in his right hand and an axe, but he himself will not rescue himself from war and robbers

For this reason they are known to be not gods; therefore do not fear them.

For just as a vessel of a man, when it has been broken, becomes useless, so are their gods when they have been set up in the houses of them.

Their eyes are full of dust from the feet of those entering in.

And as if for one who had done wrong to a king, the courts are surrounded; as for one led away to death, the priests fortify their houses with doorways and with bolts and bars, so that they may not be plundered by the robbers.

They burn lamps, and more than themselves, of which they are able to see none.

It is like a beam from the house, and they say that their hearts are licked out by the creeping things from the earth having devoured them, both them and their clothing, and they do not perceive it.

their faces blackened from the smoke from the house

Over their body and over their head bats, swallows, and the birds alight likewise, and also the cats

From this you will know that they are not gods; therefore do not fear them.

For the gold with which they are surrounded for beauty, unless someone wipes off the rust, they will surely not shine; for neither when they were being melted did they perceive it.

they are bought at every price, in which there is no spirit

without feet they are carried on shoulders, showing their own dishonor to men, and those who serve them are ashamed too, because perhaps they might never fall to the ground and rise again by means of them

neither if someone sets it upright by itself will it move, nor if it is bent will it by no means be made upright, but as for the dead their gifts are set before them

And selling their sacrifices, their priests misuse them; likewise also their women, preserving them by means of them, give nothing either to the poor or to the powerless from their sacrifices; a woman sitting apart and a woman in childbirth touch them.

Knowing then from these that they are not gods, do not fear them

For how could they be called gods, since women set food before gods of silver and gold and wooden?

and in their houses the priests sit in chariots, having their tunics torn and their heads and their beards shaved, whose heads are uncovered

And they roar, crying out before their gods, like some at a funeral banquet for a dead man

From their clothing the priests, taking off, clothe their wives and their children

Neither if they suffer evil from anyone are they able to repay, nor if good, nor are they able to appoint a king, nor to take away.

Likewise they are able to give neither wealth nor bronze; if someone, after making a vow to them, does not repay it, they will surely not seek it out.

From death they will by no means rescue a man, nor will they by any means deliver the weaker from the strong.

they will not set a blind man around for sight; a man being in distress they will not at all rescue him

They will by no means show mercy to a widow, nor will they do good to an orphan.

The wooden things and the overlaid with gold and the overlaid with silver are like stones from the mountain; but those who serve them will be put to shame

How then are they to be considered, or called, gods?

And even of the Chaldeans themselves, those who dishonor them, when they see a mute man not able to speak, bringing forward Bel, they ask him to cry out, as if he were able to sense it.

And they are not able, having understood, to leave them; for they do not have sense.

And the women, having put on ropes in the roads, sit down to burn incense to the bran.

But when any one of them, being drawn by some passerby, lies down, it reproaches the one near by because it has not been deemed worthy, and its cord has not been broken either

All the things that happen to them are false; how then are they to be thought of or called, so that they are gods?

Made by carpenters and goldsmiths, they are nothing else than what the craftsmen want them to become.

And those who make them shall certainly not become long-lived; and how then are the things made by them going to be gods?

For they have left behind lies and reproach for those who come after.

For when war comes upon them and evils, the priests also plan among themselves where they may hide together with them.

How then is it not possible to perceive that they are not gods, who neither save themselves from war nor from evils?

For the things that are wooden and overlaid with gold and silver will be known afterward that they are false to all the nations, and it will be manifest to all the kings that they are not gods but works of human hands, and no work of God is in them.

By what then is it to be known that they are not gods?

For a king of a country they will by no means raise up, nor will they by no means give rain to men.

and they shall by no means discern their judgment, nor shall they by no means rescue one being wronged, being powerless, for as crows between heaven and earth

For when fire falls into a house of gods, wooden or overlaid with gold or overlaid with silver, the priests of them will indeed flee and be saved, but they themselves, like beams in the middle, will be burned up.

But to a king and to enemies they will surely not resist

How then is it to be awaited or supposed that they are gods?

Neither from thieves nor from robbers will wooden gods and overlaid with silver and overlaid with gold certainly be saved, whose the strong ones will remove the gold and the silver and the clothing that is around them; they will go away having neither will they certainly help themselves

so that a king is better, displaying his own valor, than a vessel useful in a house, which its owner will use, or the false gods, or even a door in a house, preserving the things in it, or the false gods, and a wooden pillar in palaces, or the false gods

For the sun and the moon and the stars, being bright and being sent for use, are obedient.

Likewise also lightning, when it appears, is visible; and the same is also the wind in every region it blows

and with clouds, when it is commanded by God to go over the whole inhabited world, they accomplish the thing appointed, and the fire sent from above, to consume mountains and forests, does the thing appointed

But these things are neither like their appearances nor like their powers.

Therefore it is neither to be supposed nor to be called gods, since they are not able either to judge a judgment or to do good to men

Knowing therefore that they are not gods, do not fear them

For neither kings will they ever curse nor will they ever bless.

And they will not show signs among the nations in heaven, nor will they shine as the sun, nor will they give light as the moon

The beasts are better than they, which are able, having fled into shelter, to help themselves

In no way therefore is it evident to us that they are gods; therefore do not fear them

For just as in a cucumber patch a scarecrow, guarding nothing, so are their gods, wooden and overlaid with gold and overlaid with silver

In the same way also, to the thornbush in a garden, on which every bird sits, likewise also to a corpse cast in darkness, their gods of wood and overlaid with gold and overlaid with silver are likened.

From the purple and the marble that is rotting upon them you will know that they are not gods, and they themselves also will be eaten afterward, and there will be disgrace in the land.

Therefore a righteous man, not having idols, will be better, for he will be far from reproach