Isaiah 42:18-25

¶Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant [Israel], Or deaf like My messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the one who is at peace with Me [in a covenant relationship], Or so blind as the servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but no one hears. The LORD was pleased for His righteousness’ sake To make the law great and prove to be glorious. But this is a people despoiled and plundered; All of them are trapped in holes, Or are hidden away in prisons. They have become a prey with no one to rescue them, And a spoil, with no one to say, “Give them back!” [Luke 19:41-44] ¶Who among you will listen to this? Who will listen and pay attention in the time to come? Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, He against whom we [of Judah] have sinned, And in whose ways they [of Israel] were unwilling to walk, And whose law and teaching they did not obey? Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And engulfed him in fire, Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; It burned him, but he did not take it to heart.