8. For all the tables have been filled with vomit and filth, so much so that there was no place left.
9. To whom will he teach knowledge? And to whom will he grant an understanding of what is heard? To those who have been weaned from the milk, who have been pulled away from the breasts.
10. So then: command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there.
11. For with the speech of lips and with a different language, he will speak to this people.
12. He said to them: "This is my rest. Refresh the weary," and, "This is my refreshment." And yet they were unwilling to listen.
13. And so, the word of the Lord to them will be: "Command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there," so that they may go forward and fall backward, and so that they may be broken and ensnared and captured.
14. Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, you mocking men, who lord it over my people who are at Jerusalem.
15. For you have said: "We struck a deal with death, and we formed a pact with Hell. When the inundating scourge passes through, it will not overwhelm us. For we have placed our hope in lies, and we are protected by what is false."
16. For this reason, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will set a stone within the foundations of Zion, a tested stone, a cornerstone, a precious stone, which has been established in the foundation: whoever trusts in him need not hurry.
17. And I will establish judgment in weights, and justice in measures. And a hailstorm will overturn hope in what is false; and waters will inundate its protection.
18. And your deal with death will be abolished, and your pact with Hell will not stand. When the inundating scourge passes through, you will be trampled down by it.
19. Whenever it passes through, it will take you away. For, at first light of morning, it will pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone will make you understand what you hear.
20. For the bed has been narrowed, so much so that one alone would fall out, and the short blanket is not able to cover two.
21. For the Lord will stand, just as at the mountain of divisions. He will be angry, just as in the valley which is in Gibeon, so that he may accomplish his work, his strange work, so that he may complete his work, his work which is foreign even to him.
22. And now, do not be willing to mock, lest your chains be tightened. For I have heard, from the Lord, the God of hosts, about the consummation and the abridgement concerning the entire earth.