When its twigs are dry, they are broken off, women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding, therefore He who made them has no compassion on them, and He who formed them shows them no favour.
And the lyre and the harp, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the deeds of יהוה, nor see the work of His hands.
And the dogs have a strong appetite, they never have enough. And they are shepherds! They have not known understanding. All of them look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own end, saying,
“For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
“My people have been wandering sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.
“Even a stork in the heavens knows her appointed times. And a turtledove, and a swallow, and a thrush observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the right-ruling of יהוה.
“When anyone hears the word of the reign, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is that sown by the wayside.
For they choose to have this hidden from them: that the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by the Word of Elohim,