¹⁵ And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of sheep.

¹⁰ Make the hearts of this people fat, and let their ears be stopped, and their eyes shut; for fear that they may see with their eyes, and be hearing with their ears, and their heart may become wise, and they may be turned to me and made well.

¹¹ Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer, Till the towns are waste and unpeopled, and the houses have no men, and the land becomes completely waste,

¹² And the Lord has taken men far away, and there are wide waste places in the land.

²⁶ As the thief is shamed when he is taken, so is Israel shamed; they, their kings and their rulers, their priests and their prophets;

²⁷ Who say to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You have given me life: for their backs have been turned to me, not their faces: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Up! and be our saviour.

¹⁴ The visions which your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you false words, driving you away.

³ This is what the Lord has said: A curse on the foolish prophets who go after the spirit which is in them and have seen nothing!

¹⁴ Let them be: they are blind guides. And if a blind man is guiding a blind man, the two will go falling into a hole together.

¹⁷ You foolish ones and blind: which is greater, the gold, or the Temple which makes the gold holy?

⁴⁰ O you foolish ones! did not he who made the outside in the same way make the inside?