False Confidence in Man

No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.

Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.

Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.

When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.

When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.