Isaiah 42:18-25

18Listen to me, you deaf people! Look at this, you blind people!

19Who is blind? Nobody is as blind as my servant. Who is deaf? Nobody is as deaf as the one who takes my message. The people that I agreed a covenant with are blind! Yes, the servant of the Lord is truly blind!

20You Israelites have seen many things, but you do not understand them. You have opened your ears to listen, but you have not really heard anything.’

21The Lord always does what is right. So he has made his law great and important. He is happy when people respect his law.

22But enemies have robbed God's people and they have taken away all their valuable things. Their enemies have caught them in traps and they have made them prisoners. There is nobody who will rescue them. Their enemies have stored them safely, and nobody says, ‘Send them back.’

23Will any of you listen to my message? Will you think carefully about it in the future?

24Who put Jacob's descendants under the power of their enemies? Who gave the Israelites to people who would rob them? It was the Lord! He is the one that we have not obeyed. His people did not live in the way that he wanted. They did not obey his law.

25So the Lord was very angry with them. He punished them with a cruel war. His anger was like a fire all round them, but they did not understand what he was doing. His anger burned them, but they did not learn their lesson.