⁶ Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
    ^(A)they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

⁶ My people are destroyed ^(A)for lack of knowledge;
    ^(B)because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you ^(C)from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    ^(D)I also will forget your children.

^10 (A)For I hear many whispering.
    ^(B)Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! ^(C)Let us denounce him!”
    say all my ^(D)close friends,
    ^(E)watching for ^(F)my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then ^(G)we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”

¹⁹ But I was ^(A)like a gentle lamb
    led to the slaughter.
I did not know ^(B)it was against me
    they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
    ^(C)let us cut him off from ^(D)the land of the living,
    that his name be remembered no more.”

⁵ Why then has this people ^(A)turned away
    in perpetual ^(B)backsliding?
^(C)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.

²⁷ Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;