The LORD told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the LORD had said:

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "These foolish prophets are doomed! They provide their own inspiration and invent their own visions.

"Mortal man," he said, "denounce the rulers of Israel. Prophesy to them, and tell them what I, the Sovereign LORD, say to them: You are doomed, you shepherds of Israel! You take care of yourselves, but never tend the sheep.

"How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces, but you yourselves don't go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter!

"How terrible for you, blind guides! You teach, 'If someone swears by the Temple, he isn't bound by his vow; but if he swears by the gold in the Temple, he is bound.'

"How terrible for you Pharisees! You give to God one tenth of the seasoning herbs, such as mint and rue and all the other herbs, but you neglect justice and love for God. These you should practice, without neglecting the others.

How terrible for you! You are like unmarked graves which people walk on without knowing it."

Jesus answered, "How terrible also for you teachers of the Law! You put onto people's backs loads which are hard to carry, but you yourselves will not stretch out a finger to help them carry those loads.

You yourselves admit, then, that you approve of what your ancestors did; they murdered the prophets, and you build their tombs.

So the people of this time will be punished for the murder of all the prophets killed since the creation of the world,

"How terrible for you teachers of the Law! You have kept the key that opens the door to the house of knowledge; you yourselves will not go in, and you stop those who are trying to go in!"

The old and honorable men are the head---and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies!

It does no good to make a metal image to worship as a god!

Listen to what I, the LORD, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go, and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the LORD, have spoken."

So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the one God.

Do I imply, then, that an idol or the food offered to it really amounts to anything?

No! What I am saying is that what is sacrificed on pagan altars is offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be partners with demons.

When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.

The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep.

So he told me to go and give the people this message: "No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening."

Then he said to me, "Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed."

The LORD has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them.

Is anyone more blind than my servant, more deaf than the messenger I send?

Israel, you have seen so much, but what has it meant to you? You have ears to hear with, but what have you really heard?"

The LORD says, "Death to Babylonia! Death to its people, to its rulers, to its people of wisdom.

Destroy its horses and chariots! Death to its hired soldiers--- how weak they are! Destroy its treasures; plunder and loot.

Night and day you blunder on, and the prophets do no better than you. I am going to destroy Israel, your mother.

"The more of you priests there are, the more you sin against me, and so I will turn your honor into disgrace.

The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken.

I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.

"Prophets, your day is almost over; the sun is going down on you. Because you mislead my people, you will have no more prophetic visions, and you will not be able to predict anything."

Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.

Jesus said, "I came to this world to judge, so that the blind should see and those who see should become blind."

"God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them."

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

Listen, the time is coming when I will kill all the young men in your family and your clan, so that no man in your family will live to be old.

When King Jeroboam heard this, he pointed at him and ordered, "Seize that man!" At once the king's arm became paralyzed so that he couldn't pull it back.

Now then, this is what I, the Sovereign LORD, say: I am the enemy of the king of Egypt. I am going to break both his arms---the good one and the one already broken---and the sword will fall from his hand.

Then I will make the arms of the king of Babylonia strong and put my sword in his hands. But I will break the arms of the king of Egypt, and he will groan and die in front of his enemy.