^11–12What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, “Read this,” she’ll say, “I can’t. The envelope is sealed.” And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, “Read this,” he’ll say, “I can’t read.”

^13–14The Master said:

“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,

but their hearts aren’t in it.

Because they act like they’re worshiping me

but don’t mean it,

I’m going to step in and shock them awake,

astonish them, stand them on their ears.

The wise ones who had it all figured out

will be exposed as fools.

The smart people who thought they knew everything

will turn out to know nothing.”

^15–16Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.

You shut God out and work behind the scenes,

Plotting the future as if you knew everything,

acting mysterious, never showing your hand.

You have everything backward!

You treat the potter as a lump of clay.

Does a book say to its author,

“He didn’t write a word of me”?

Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,

“She had nothing to do with this”?

^17–21And then before you know it,

and without you having anything to do with it,

Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens,

and Mount Carmel reforested.

At that time the deaf will hear

word-for-word what’s been written.

After a lifetime in the dark,

the blind will see.

Read in Logos