“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’^(B)
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;^(C)
    make their ears dull
    and close their eyes.^[a](D)
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,^(E)
    understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”^(F)

59 Surely the arm^(A) of the Lord is not too short^(B) to save,
    nor his ear too dull to hear.^(C)
2 But your iniquities have separated^(D)
    you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
    so that he will not hear.^(E)
3 For your hands are stained with blood,^(F)
    your fingers with guilt.^(G)
Your lips have spoken falsely,^(H)
    and your tongue mutters wicked things.
⁴ No one calls for justice;^(I)
    no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely^(J) on empty arguments, they utter lies;^(K)
    they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.^(L)
5 They hatch the eggs of vipers^(M)
    and spin a spider’s web.^(N)
Whoever eats their eggs will die,
    and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
⁶ Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
    they cannot cover themselves with what they make.^(O)
Their deeds are evil deeds,
    and acts of violence^(P) are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet rush into sin;
    they are swift to shed innocent blood.^(Q)
They pursue evil schemes;^(R)
    acts of violence mark their ways.^(S)
8 The way of peace they do not know;^(T)
    there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;^(U)
    no one who walks along them will know peace.^(V)