They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'"
NIV
They are like little children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another and saying, We piped to you [playing wedding], and you did not dance; we sang dirges and wailed [playing funeral], and you did not weep.
AMP
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
KJV
But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)
NIV
But the Pharisees and the lawyers [of the Mosaic Law] annulled and rejected and brought to nothing God's purpose concerning themselves, by [refusing and] not being baptized by him [John].
AMP
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
KJV