here is no place
clean.--'Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to
understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn
from the breasts? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.'--Nay,
but by men of strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this
people: to whom he said, This is the rest, give ye rest to him that is
weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. Therefore
shall the word of the LORD be unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a
little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared,
and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that
rule this people which is in Jerusalem: Because ye have said, We have
made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
therefore thus saith the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure
foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. And I will make
judgement the line, and righteousness the plummet: and the hail shall
sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding
place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. As often as it
passeth through, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass
through, by day and by night: and it shall be nought but terror to
understand the message. For the bed is shorter than that a man can
stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap
himself in it. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall
be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his
strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore
be ye not scorners, lest your bands be made strong: for a consummation,
and that determined, have I heard from the Lord, the LORD of hosts, upon
the whole earth.

Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the
plowman plow continually to sow? doth he continually open and break the
clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the fa