⁹ Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

³ Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
    and a fool with a rod to his back!

²² “My people are foolish
    and do not know me,” says the Lord.
“They are stupid children
    who have no understanding.
They are clever enough at doing wrong,
    but they have no idea how to do right!”

¹¹ Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals
    and wiser than the birds of the sky?’

⁶ I listen to their conversations
    and don’t hear a word of truth.
Is anyone sorry for doing wrong?
    Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”?
No! All are running down the path of sin
    as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle!
⁷ Even the stork that flies across the sky
    knows the time of her migration,
as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane.^[a]
    They all return at the proper time each year.
But not my people!
    They do not know the Lord’s laws.

¹⁸ I have heard Israel^[a] saying,
‘You disciplined me severely,
    like a calf that needs training for the yoke.
Turn me again to you and restore me,
    for you alone are the Lord my God.