18
"Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, and see!
19
Who is blind but my servant,
and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
blind like the servant of the Lord?
20
You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen."
21
It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.
22
But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in pits
or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
with no one to say, "Send them back."
23
Which of you will listen to this
or pay close attention in time to come?
24
Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
they did not obey his law.
25
So he poured out on them his burning anger,
the violence of war.
It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;
it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.