Commentators stress that the people's statement, "It is in vain," is not a cry of helpless despair but an expression of defiant rebellion. They are not saying they cannot change, but that they will not. Scholars like Ellicott and Gill explain this as a hardened, resolved rejection of God's call to repent, essentially telling the prophet that his efforts to reclaim them are futile because they are determined to continue in their own ways.