idolatry

³You shall not have strange gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. ⁵You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts.

²¹Little sons, keep yourselves from false worship. Amen.

⁵Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,

⁸When my soul was in anguish within me, I called to mind the Lord, so that my prayer might come to you, to your holy temple.

⁹All of those who create idols are nothing, and their most beloved things will not benefit them. These are their witnesses, for they do not see, and they do not understand, so that they might be confounded. ¹⁰Who has formed a god or cast a molten image, which is useful for nothing? ¹¹Behold, all those who partake in this will be confounded. For these makers are men. They will all assemble together. They will stand and be terrified. And they will be confounded together. ¹²The maker of iron has wrought with his file. With coals and hammers, he has formed it, and he has wrought with the strength of his arm. He will hunger and grow faint. He will not drink water, and he will become weary. ¹³The maker of wood has extended his ruler. He has formed it with a plane. He has made it with corners, and he has smoothed its curves. And he has made the image of a man, a seemingly beautiful man, dwelling in a house. ¹⁴He has cut down cedars; he has taken the evergreen oak, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest. He has planted the pine tree, which the rain has nourished.

⁴Do not be willing to convert to idols, neither should you make molten gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.

¹⁴Because of this, most beloved of mine, flee from the worship of idols.

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest; they are: fornication, lust, homosexuality, self-indulgence, ²⁰the serving of idols, drug use, hostility, contentiousness, jealousy, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, murder, inebriation, carousing, and similar things. About these things, I continue to preach to you, as I have preached to you: that those who act in this way shall not obtain the kingdom of God.

⁴Their infirmities have been multiplied; after this, they acted more quickly. I will not gather for their convocations of blood, nor will I remember their names with my lips.

¹⁵The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. ¹⁶They have a mouth, and do not speak. They have eyes, and do not see. ¹⁷They have ears, and do not hear. For neither is there any breath in their mouths. ¹⁸Let those who make them become like them, along with all who trust in them.