Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do.

The LORD says, "My people are stupid; they don't know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good."

Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you.

All of them are stupid and foolish. What can they learn from wooden idols?

But to this very day he has not let you understand what you have experienced.

Is this the way you should treat the LORD, you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator, he made you into a nation.

My people, how can you be such stupid fools? When will you ever learn?

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 branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

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

"Mortal man," he said, "you are living among rebellious people. They have eyes, but they see nothing; they have ears, but they hear nothing, because they are rebellious.

The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand.

because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have 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.'

"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."

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,

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

It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense.

Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria!