⁸ Think again, you fools!
    When will you finally catch on?

⁶ Only a simpleton would not know,
    and only a fool would not understand this:

¹¹ No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.

¹⁰ Those who are wise must finally die,
    just like the foolish and senseless,
    leaving all their wealth behind.

²⁹ Oh, that they were wise and could understand this!
    Oh, that they might know their fate!

⁸ People who worship idols are stupid and foolish.
    The things they worship are made of wood!

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.

⁸ “‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,”
    when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies?

¹¹ The people are like the dead branches of a tree,
    broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots.
Israel is a foolish and stupid nation,
    for its people have turned away from God.
Therefore, the one who made them
    will show them no pity or mercy.

12 To learn, you must love discipline;
    it is stupid to hate correction.