Isaiah 29

¹Ho Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David encamped!

Add year to year;

let the feasts run their round.

²Yet I will distress Ariel,

and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

³And I will encamp against you round about,

and will besiege you with towers

and I will raise siegeworks against you.

⁴Then deep from the earth you shall speak,

from low in the dust your words shall come;

your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,

and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.

And in an instant, suddenly,

⁶you will be visited by the Lord of hosts

with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,

shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸As when a hungry man dreams he is eating

and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,

or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking

and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,

so shall the multitude of all the nations be

that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,

blind yourselves and be blind!

Be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not with strong drink!

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out upon you

a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes, the prophets,

and covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹²And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

¹³And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote;

¹⁴therefore, behold, I will again

do marvelous things with this people,

wonderful and marvelous;

and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”

¹⁵Woe to those who hide deep from the Lord their counsel,

whose deeds are in the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

¹⁶You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while

until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

¹⁸In that day the deaf shall hear

the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see.

¹⁹The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless shall come to nought and the scoffer cease,

and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

²¹who by a word make a man out to be an offender,

and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,

no more shall his face grow pale.

²³For when he sees his children,

the work of my hands, in his midst,

they will sanctify my name;

they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who murmur will accept instruction.”