“‘We played the pipe for you,
    and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
    and you did not cry.’

¹⁷ “‘We played the pipe for you,
    and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
    and you did not mourn.’

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)
4 I thought, “These are only the poor;
    they are foolish,^(F)
for they do not know^(G) the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders^(H)
    and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
    the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
    and torn off the bonds.^(I)

⁹ “Who is it he is trying to teach?^(A)
    To whom is he explaining his message?^(B)
To children weaned^(C) from their milk,^(D)
    to those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that^[a];
    a little here, a little there.^(E)”

¹¹ Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues^(F)
    God will speak to this people,^(G)
12 to whom he said,
    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;^(H)
and, “This is the place of repose”—
    but they would not listen.
¹³ So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there^(I)—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured^(J) and snared and captured.^(K)

¹⁶ Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom,
    when they are not able to understand it?^(A)