8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
9. And he said, “Go and tell these people,‘No matter how closely you listen, you’ll never understand.No matter how closely you look, you’ll never see.’
10. Make these people close-minded.Plug their ears.Shut their eyes.Otherwise, they may see with their eyes,hear with their ears,understand with their minds,and return and be healed.”
11. I asked, “How long, O Lord?”And he replied,“Until the cities lie in ruins with no one living in them,the houses have no people,and the land is completely desolate.
12. The Lord will send his people far away,and a large area in the middle of the land will be abandoned.
13. Even if one out of ten people is left in it,the land will be burned again.When a sacred oak or an oak is cut down, a stump is left.The holy seed will be the land’s stump.”