Isaiah 29

Woe to Jerusalem

1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; Let feasts come around.2 Yet I will distress Ariel; There shall be heaviness and sorrow, And it shall be to Me as Ariel.3 I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, And I will raise siegeworks against you.4 You shall be brought down, You shall speak out of the ground; Your speech shall be low, out of the dust; Your voice shall be like a mediums, out of the ground; And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.5 Moreover the multitude of your foes Shall be like fine dust, And the multitude of the terrible ones Like chaff that passes away; Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.6 You will be punished by the Lord of hosts With thunder and earthquake and great noise, With storm and tempest And the flame of devouring fire.7 The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, Even all who fight against her and her fortress, And distress her, Shall be as a dream of a night vision.8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, And lookhe eats; But he awakes, and his soul is still empty; Or as when a thirsty man dreams, And lookhe drinks; But he awakes, and indeed he is faint, And his soul still craves: So the multitude of all the nations shall be, Who fight against Mount Zion.

The Blindness of Disobedience

9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.10 For the Lord has poured out on you The spirit of deep sleep, And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, Read this, please. And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.12 Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, Read this, please. And he says, I am not literate.13 Therefore the Lord said: Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, And their works are in the dark; They say, Who sees us? and, Who knows us?16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, He did not make me? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

17  Is it not yet a very little while Till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.19 The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel.20 For the terrible one is brought to nothing, The scornful one is consumed, And all who watch for iniquity are cut off21 Who make a man an offender by a word, And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, And turn aside the just by empty words.22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, Nor shall his face now grow pale;23 But when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel.24 These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding, And those who complained will learn doctrine.

Isaiah 29

Ariel is Besieged

1 Ariel is as good as deadt –
Ariel, the town David besieged!t
Keep observing your annual rituals,
celebrate your festivals on schedule.t

2 I will threaten Ariel,
and she will mourn intensely
and become like an altar heartht before me.

3 I will lay siege to you on all sides;s
I will besiege you with troops;t
I will raise siege works against you.

4 You will fall;
while lying on the groundt you will speak;
from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard.t
Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld;t
from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation.t

5 But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,
the horde of tyrantst like chaff that is blown away.
It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

6 Judgment will come from the Lord who commands armies,t
accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,
by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.

7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.
There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,
those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,
only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty.t
It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,
only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched.t
So it will be for the horde from all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.

God’s People are Spiritually Insensitive

9 You will be shocked and amazed!t
You are totally blind!t
They are drunk,s but not because of wine;
they stagger,s but not because of beer.

10 For the Lord has poured out on you
a strong urge to sleep deeply.t
He has shut your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
11 To you this entire prophetic revelationt is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can readt and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.”

12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t readt and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”t

13 The sovereign mastert says,
“These people say they are loyal to me;t
they say wonderful things about me,t
but they are not really loyal to me.t
Their worship consists of
nothing but man-made ritual.t

14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –
an absolutely extraordinary deed.t
Wise men will have nothing to say,
the sages will have no explanations.”t

15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,t
who do their work in secret and boast,t
“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”t

16 Your thinking is perverse!t
Should the potter be regarded as clay?t
Should the thing made sayt about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Changes are Coming

17 In just a very short timet
Lebanon will turn into an orchard,
and the orchard will be considered a forest.s

18 At that timet the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.ts

19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;
the poor among humankind will take delightt in the Holy One of Israel.s

20 For tyrants will disappear,
those who taunt will vanish,
and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminatedt –

21 those who bear false testimony against a person,t
who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gates
and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges.t

22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob:t
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;
their faces will no longer show their embarrassment.t

23 For when they see their children,
whom I will produce among them,t
they will honort my name.
They will honor the Holy One of Jacob;ss
they will respectt the God of Israel.

24 Those who stray morally will gain understanding;t
those who complain will acquire insight.t