Isaiah 29

1Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Add year to year; let the festivals run their cycle.

2Then I will bring distress on Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamenting, and she will be to me like an altar hearth.

3I will camp against you all around; I will besiege you with towers and raise siegeworks against you.

4Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your words will come up faintly from the dust. Your voice will come from the ground like that of a ghost, and your words will whisper from the dust.

5But the horde of your foes will be like fine dust, the horde of the ruthless like drifting chaff. In an instant, suddenly,

6you will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder and earthquake and a great noise, with whirlwind and storm and the flame of a devouring fire.

7The horde of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all who fight against her and her stronghold and bring distress on her, will be like a dream, a vision in the night.

8It will be as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he wakes up and his hunger is not satisfied; or as when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he wakes up faint, with his thirst still craving. So it will be with the horde of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.

9Stun yourselves and be stunned; blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with beer.

10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.

11This whole vision has become for you like the words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to someone who can read and say, “Please read this,” he answers, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”

12When they give the scroll to someone who cannot read and say, “Please read this,” he answers, “I cannot read.”

13The 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 human beings learned by rote,

14therefore look, I will once again do astonishing things with this people, wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of their wise will perish, and the understanding of their discerning will vanish.

15Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from Yahweh, whose deeds are done in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

16How you turn things upside down! Is the potter to be regarded as the clay, so that the thing made can say to its maker, “He did not make me,” or the thing formed say to the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

17In just a very little while, will not Lebanon be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?

18On that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19The humble will again rejoice in Yahweh, and the poorest of people will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

20For the ruthless will be gone, the scoffer will come to an end, and all who are eager to do evil will be cut off,

21those who with a word make a person out to be guilty, who set a trap for the one who reproves at the gate, and with empty claims turn aside the righteous.

22Therefore this is what Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob will no longer be ashamed; his face will no longer grow pale.

23For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will treat my name as holy; they will treat the Holy One of Jacob as holy and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24Those who go astray in spirit will gain understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.