Israel Is Deaf and Blind

18 Listen, you deaf ones;

look, you blind ones, that you may see!

19 Who is blind but My servant,

or deaf like the messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like My covenant partner,

or blind like the servant of the LORD?

20 Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch.

Though your ears are open, you do not hear.”

21 The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness,

to magnify His law and make it glorious.

22 But this is a people plundered and looted,

all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons.

They have become plunder with no one to rescue them,

and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”

23 Who among you will pay attention to this?

Who will listen and obey hereafter?

24 Who gave Jacob up for spoil,

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the LORD,

against whom we have sinned?

They were unwilling to walk in His ways,

and they would not obey His law.

25 So He poured out on them His furious anger

and the fierceness of battle.

It enveloped them in flames,

but they did not understand;

it consumed them,

but they did not take it to heart.