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⁹ ‘Whom will he teach knowledge,
   and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
   those taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
   line upon line, line upon line,
   here a little, there a little.’^*

¹¹ Truly, with stammering lip
   and with alien tongue
he will speak to this people,
¹²   to whom he has said,
‘This is rest;
   give rest to the weary;
and this is repose’;
   yet they would not hear.
¹³ Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them,
   ‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
   line upon line, line upon line,
   here a little, there a little’;^*
in order that they may go, and fall backwards,
   and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
   who rule this people in Jerusalem.
¹⁵ Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death,
   and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
   it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
   and in falsehood we have taken shelter’;
¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God,
See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone,
   a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
   ‘One who trusts will not panic.’
¹⁷ And I will make justice the line,
   and righteousness the plummet;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
   and waters will overwhelm the shelter.
¹⁸ Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
   and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
   you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will take you;
   for morning by morning it will pass through,
   by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
   and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim,
   he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon
to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
   and to work his work—alien is his work!
²² Now therefore do not scoff,
   or your bonds will be made stronger;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
   from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.