IsaiahChapter 29

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¹How terrible it will be for you, Ariel,
the city of Ariel where David camped!
Year after year,
let your feasts keep coming around.a ²But I will bring trouble on Ariel.
There will be mourning and crying.
She will be like an altar hearth to me. ³I will camp in a circle all around you.
I will surround you with towers.
I will set up siege ramps against you. ⁴You will be brought low.
You will speak from the ground.
Your words will be muffled from the dust.
Your voice will be like a ghost from the ground.
Your words will whisper out of the dust. ⁵But your many enemies will be like fine dust.
The crowd of cruel men will be like blowing husks.
Then suddenly, in a moment, ⁶the LORD of Hosts will come to you.
He will come with thunder and earthquake and a loud noise.
He will come with windstorm and storm
and flames of fire that burn everything up. ⁷All the many nations will go out to fight against Ariel.
All who fight against her will surround her and attack her.
But they will be like a dream,
like a vision in the night. ⁸It will be like a hungry man who dreams he is eating.
Then he wakes up, and he is still hungry.
It will be like a thirsty man who dreams he is drinking.
Then he wakes up, weak and dry.
That is how it will be for all the many nations
who fight against Mount Zion. ⁹Stop and be amazed.
Blind yourselves and do not see.
Be drunk, but not from wine.
Stagger, but not from beer. ¹⁰For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has shut your eyes, you prophets.
He has covered your heads, you seers. ¹¹This whole vision will be like the words in a sealed scroll to you. Suppose it is handed to someone who can read. He will say, "I can't read it, because it is sealed." ¹²Or suppose the scroll is handed to someone who can't read. He will say, "I don't know how to read." ¹³So the Lord said:
"These people come near to me with their mouths.
They honor me with their lips.
But their hearts are far away from me.
Their worship of me is only rules taught by people. ¹⁴So once again I will amaze these people
with wonder after wonder.
The wisdom of the wise will disappear.
The understanding of the smart will be hidden." ¹⁵How terrible it will be for those who dig deep
to hide their plans from the LORD.
They do their deeds in the dark.
They say, "Who sees us? Who will know?" ¹⁶You turn things upside down!
It is as if the potter were thought of as the clay.
Should the thing that was made say to its maker,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say about the potter,
"He doesn't understand anything"? ¹⁷In a very short time,
won't Lebanon become a rich orchard?
And won't the orchard seem like a forest? ¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll.
Out of deep darkness,
the eyes of the blind will see. ¹⁹The humble will have more and more joy in the LORD.
The poorest people will be glad in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰For the cruel will vanish.
The mockers will disappear.
All who look for ways to do evil will be cut down. ²¹They are the ones who make a man guilty with just a word.
They set traps for the one who defends others at the city gate.
They use false charges to keep justice from the innocent. ²²So the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says this about the house of Jacob:
"Jacob will not be ashamed anymore.
His face will not turn pale anymore. ²³He will see his children around him,
the work of my hands.
Then they will honor my name.
They will treat the Holy One of Jacob as holy.
They will stand in awe of the God of Israel. ²⁴Then those who wander in spirit will come to understand.
Those who complain will accept teaching."