Against whom are you sporting? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood,
being about to receive the wages of unrighteousness, deeming indulgence in the day of pleasure, spots and blemishes, revelling in their own deceptions while they feast with you,
Alas, sinning nation, a people loaded with crookedness, a seed of evil-doers, sons acting corruptly! They have forsaken יהוה, they have provoked the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕ
And plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Greetings, Sovereign of the Yehuḏ
“Because your rage against Me and your pride have come up to My ears, I shall put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I shall turn you back by the way which you came.
“Whom have you reproached and reviled? And against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes in pride? Against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕ
“Woe to the stubborn children,” declares יהוה, “to make counsel, but not from Me, and to devise plans, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;
Would the axe boast itself over him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself over him who saws with it? As a rod waving those who lift it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!
“No, you have not heard; no, you have not known; no, from of old your ear has not been open. Because I knew that you are indeed treacherous, and are called ‘a transgressor from the womb.’
But they were mocking the messengers of Elohim and despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of יהוה arose against His people, until there was no healing.