¹² It has frustrated all efforts;
    its heavy deposit has not been removed,
    not even by fire.

⁵ Friend deceives friend,^(A)
    and no one speaks the truth.^(B)
They have taught their tongues to lie;^(C)
    they weary themselves with sinning.

¹³ Has not the Lord Almighty determined
    that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,^(A)
    that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?^(B)

“Babylon’s thick wall^(A) will be leveled
    and her high gates^(B) set on fire;
the peoples^(C) exhaust^(D) themselves for nothing,
    the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”^(E)

³ Lord, do not your eyes^(A) look for truth?
    You struck^(B) them, but they felt no pain;
    you crushed them, but they refused correction.^(C)
They made their faces harder than stone^(D)
    and refused to repent.^(E)

¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken^(A) me,
    the spring of living water,^(B)
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁸ “Of what value^(A) is an idol^(B) carved by a craftsman?
    Or an image^(C) that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
    he makes idols that cannot speak.^(D)
19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
    Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’^(E)
Can it give guidance?
    It is covered with gold and silver;^(F)
    there is no breath in it.”^(G)