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²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob,
   proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
   who have eyes, but do not see,
   who have ears, but do not hear.
²² Do you not fear me? says the Lord;
   Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
   a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail,
   though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³ But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
   they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say in their hearts,
   ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
   the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
   the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these away,
   and your sins have deprived you of good.
²⁶ For scoundrels are found among my people;
   they take over the goods of others.
Like fowlers they set a trap;^*
   they catch human beings.
²⁷ Like a cage full of birds,
   their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
²⁸   they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
   they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
   and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?

says the Lord,
   and shall I not bring retribution
   on a nation such as this?

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing
   has happened in the land:
³¹ the prophets prophesy falsely,
   and the priests rule as the prophets direct;^*
my people love to have it so,
   but what will you do when the end comes?