Third Speaker
Whom will you now deceive, deceiver?
A Fourth Speaker
[With feigned anger, to the others] How irreverently you speak to the messenger of the Lord! Let us kiss the hem of his garment; let us pay honor to his visions!
Voices
[Mingled with laughter] Prophesy to us Elijah.—Instruct us further, all-knower.—Happy the man who puts his trust in Jeremiah.—Where did you pick up that fledgling that chirps at your heels?—Prophesy, Jeremiah; prophesy disaster; mountains of disaster.
Jeremiah
[Suddenly breaking forth into speech] A miracle has happened, people of Jerusalem, a miracle which delivers you from death, and instead of trembling with fear, you make merry. Hardly an hour ago, you were racked with anxiety; your hearts are still quaking, and yet you are already beginning to give tongue. Woe unto you, that your first cry, when the cord is loosed from your necks, should be one of folly and presumption.
Speak not with them. Folly alone holds converse with fools.