So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

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."

So David took the spear and the water jar from right beside Saul's head, and he and Abishai left. No one saw it or knew what had happened or even woke up---they were all sound asleep, because the LORD had sent a heavy sleep on them all.

Strike them with blindness! Make their backs always weak!

"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."

For he said, 'Go and say to this people: You will listen and listen, but not understand; you will look and look, but not see,

because this people's minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.' "

As the scripture says, "God made their minds and hearts dull; to this very day they cannot see or hear."

Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth.

"If any prophets are deceived into giving a false answer, it is because I, the LORD, have deceived them. I will remove them from the people of Israel.

They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

their heroes and their soldiers, their judges and their prophets, their fortunetellers and their statesmen,

their military and civilian leaders, their politicians and everyone who uses magic to control events.

Listen, you rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be concerned about justice,

They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, "Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions.

Saul replied, "A good idea! Let's go." So they went to the town where the holy man lived. As they were going up the hill to the town, they met some young women who were coming out to draw water. They asked these women, "Is the seer in town?" (At that time a prophet was called a seer, and so whenever someone wanted to ask God a question, he would say, "Let's go to the seer.")

and as soon as I had finished all that the LORD had commanded me to speak, they grabbed me and shouted, "You ought to be killed for this!

When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.

Amaziah then said to Amos, "That's enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there. Let them pay you for it.

Don't prophesy here at Bethel any more. This is the king's place of worship, the national temple."