The King James Version Bible

Letter of Jeremiah 6:27-40

  1. They also that serve them are ashamed: for if they fall to the ground at any time, they cannot rise up again of themselves: neither, if one set them upright, can they move of themselves: neither, if they be bowed down, can they make themselves straight: but they set gifts before them as unto dead men.

  2. As for the things that are sacrificed unto them, their priests sell and abuse; in like manner their wives lay up part thereof in salt; but unto the poor and impotent they give nothing of it.

  3. Menstruous women and women in childbed eat their sacrifices: by these things ye may know that they are no gods: fear them not.

  4. For how can they be called gods? because women set meat before the gods of silver, gold, and wood.

  5. And the priests sit in their temples, having their clothes rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing upon their heads.

  6. They roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead.

  7. The priests also take off their garments, and clothe their wives and children.

  8. Whether it be evil that one doeth unto them, or good, they are not able to recompense it: they can neither set up a king, nor put him down.

  9. In like manner, they can neither give riches nor money: though a man make a vow unto them, and keep it not, they will not require it.

  10. They can save no man from death, neither deliver the weak from the mighty.

  11. They cannot restore a blind man to his sight, nor help any man in his distress.

  12. They can shew no mercy to the widow, nor do good to the fatherless.

  13. Their gods of wood, and which are overlaid with gold and silver, are like the stones that be hewn out of the mountain: they that worship them shall be confounded.

  14. How should a man then think and say that they are gods, when even the Chaldeans themselves dishonour them?