When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer.

“Indeed, you have said in my hearing (I heard the sound of the words!):

Take away from me your noisy songs; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.

It stands still, but I cannot recognize its appearance; an image is before my eyes, and I hear a murmuring voice:

But I am like a deaf man – I hear nothing; I am like a mute who cannot speak.

He decreed it as a regulation in Joseph, when he attacked the land of Egypt. I heard a voice I did not recognize.

Before they even call out, I will respond; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

“‘It then came about that just as I cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry,

So I, the Lord, say this: ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!”

if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

I am presently eighty years old. Am I able to discern good and bad? Can I taste what I eat and drink? Am I still able to hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should I continue to be a burden to my lord the king?