³² They are like children who are seated in the market-place, crying out to one another, and saying, We made music for you, but you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow, but you were not sad.

¹⁶ But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another,

¹⁷ We made music for you and you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow and you made no signs of grief.

¹⁸ For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit.

¹⁹ The Son of man has come feasting, and they say, See, a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners! And wisdom is judged to be right by her works.

¹⁶ How will money in the hand of the foolish get him wisdom, seeing that he has no sense?

⁹ To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the breast?

¹⁰ For it is one rule after another; one line after another; here a little, there a little.

¹¹ No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people:

¹² To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear.

¹³ For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken, and taken in the net.

¹¹ And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut:

¹² And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no knowledge of writing.

³ O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back.

⁴ Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God.

⁵ I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands.

⁵ And the open spaces of the town will be full of boys and girls playing in its open spaces.