20-25 “Tell the house of Jacob this,
    put out this bulletin in Judah:
Listen to this,
    you scatterbrains, airheads,
With eyes that see but don’t really look,
    and ears that hear but don’t really listen.
Why don’t you honor me?
    Why aren’t you in awe before me?
Yes, me, who made the shorelines
    to contain the ocean waters.
I drew a line in the sand
    that cannot be crossed.
Waves roll in but cannot get through;
    breakers crash but that’s the end of them.
But this people—what a people!
    Uncontrollable, untamable runaways.
It never occurs to them to say,
    ‘How can we honor our God with our lives,
The God who gives rain in both spring and autumn
    and maintains the rhythm of the seasons,
Who sets aside time each year for harvest
    and keeps everything running smoothly for us?’
Of course you don’t! Your bad behavior blinds you to all this.
    Your sins keep my blessings at a distance.

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