¹⁹ The people said to me, Won't you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?

⁹ Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, What do you?

¹⁸ When the children of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these?

¹² Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took the king of it, and the princes of it, and brought them to him to Babylon:

⁴⁹ Then said I, Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, Isn't he a speaker of parables?

⁷ It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁷ From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says Yahweh of Hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings.

¹³ "Your words have been stout against me," says Yahweh. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against you?'