^28 (A)There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, ^(B)wood and stone, ^(C)which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything.

¹⁰ Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to ^(A)no benefit? ¹¹ Behold, all his companions will be ^(B)put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them be put to shame together.

¹² The ^(C)craftsman of iron shapes a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, ^[a]fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and ^[b]his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. ^13 (D)The 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 ^(E)mankind, so that it may sit in a ^(F)house. ¹⁴ He 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. ¹⁵ Then 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 ^(G)makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image and ^(H)bows down before it. ¹⁶ Half 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.” ¹⁷ Yet the rest of it he ^(I)makes into a god, his carved image. He bows down before it and worships; he also ^(J)prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸ They do not ^(K)know, nor do they understand, for He has ^(L)smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. ¹⁹ No one ^[c]remembers, nor is there ^(M)knowledge 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 ^[d]I make the rest of it into an ^(N)abomination, ^[e]I bow down before a block of wood!” ²⁰ He ^[f](O)feeds on ashes; a ^(P)deceived heart has misled him. And he cannot save ^[g]himself, nor say, “^(Q)Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

^11 [a]This is what you shall say to them: “The ^(W)gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will ^(X)perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

²⁹ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ^(A)ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.

⁴ Therefore, concerning the eating of ^(A)food sacrificed to idols, we know that an ^(B)idol is ^[a]nothing at all in the world, and that ^(C)there is no God but one.

¹⁹ What do I mean then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or ^(A)that an idol is ^[a]anything?

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, ^(A)did not repent of ^(B)the works of their hands so as not to ^(C)worship demons and ^(D)the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;