^24 (A)Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,

^28 (A)For I looked, and there was no man;
I looked among them, but there was no counselor,
Who, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

² Why, when I came, was there no man?
Why, when I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed with My ^(A)rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
And die of thirst.

⁴ So will I choose their delusions,
And bring their fears on them;
^(A)Because, when I called, no one answered,
When I spoke they did not hear;
But they did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.”