Isaiah 29

1Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.

2And I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation, and she will be to me like an altar hearth.

3And I will encamp against you all around, and I will besiege you with siegeworks, and I will raise up siege towers against you.

4Then you will be brought low; from the earth you will speak, and from the dust your speech will be low. Your voice will be like that of a medium from the earth, and from the dust your speech will chirp.

5But the multitude of your strangers shall become like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff; and it shall happen suddenly, in an instant.

6From Yahweh of hosts you will be visited with thunder and with earthquake and a great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a consuming fire.

7And the multitude of all the nations that wage war against Ariel, even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8And it will be as when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, but he wakes and his appetite is empty; and as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, but he wakes, and behold, he is faint and his appetite craves. So will be the multitude of all the nations that wage war against Mount Zion.

9Be stunned and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink.

10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has shut 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 sealed scroll, which they give to one who knows writing, saying, “Please read this,” and he says, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”

12And the book is given to one who does not know writing, saying, “Please read this,” and he says, “I do not know writing.”

13And the Lord said: Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors me with its lips, while its heart is far from me, and their fear of me has become a commandment of men that is taught,

14Therefore, behold, I will again do something astonishing with this people—something astonishing and marvelous; and the wisdom of its wise men will perish, and the understanding of its discerning men will hide itself.

15Woe to those who go deep to hide counsel from Yahweh, whose deeds are in darkness, and who say, “Who sees us, and who knows us?”

16You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as clay, that what is made should say of its maker, “He did not make me,” and what is formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

17Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will turn into an orchard, and the orchard will be regarded as a forest?

18And on that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19The humble will again increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20For the ruthless one will come to nothing, the scoffer will be finished, and all who watch for wrongdoing will be cut off.

21those who make a man an offender by a word, and lay a snare for the one who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the righteous with emptiness.

22Therefore thus says Yahweh to the house of Jacob, he who redeemed Abraham: Jacob will no longer be ashamed, and his face will no longer 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 they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will learn instruction.