29
1 “Woe, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped!
Add year to year;
let the festivals run their course.
2 Yet I will bring distress upon Ariel.
There will be mourning and lamentation, and she will be to me like Ariel.
3 I will camp in a circle against you, besiege you with siege posts, and raise siegeworks against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will come faintly from the dust.
Your voice will be like a ghost’s from the earth, and your speech will whisper from the dust.”
5 But the multitude of your foreigners will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like chaff blown away.
It will happen suddenly, in an instant.
6 You will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty noise, with whirlwind, tempest, and a flame of devouring fire.
7 The multitude of all the nations fighting against Ariel, all who fight against her and her fortress and oppress her, will be like a dream, a vision in the night.
8 As a hungry man dreams that he is eating but wakes with an empty stomach, or a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking but wakes faint and still thirsty, so will be the multitude of all the nations fighting against Mount Zion.
9 Pause and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.
11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a sealed scroll.
When it is given to someone who can read, with the request, “Please read this,” he says, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”
12 When the scroll is given to someone who cannot read, with the request, “Please read this,” he says, “I do not know how to read.”
13 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 its fear of me is a human commandment that has been taught,
14 therefore I will again do wonders among this people, wonder upon wonder.
The wisdom of their wise will perish, and the understanding of their discerning will be hidden.”
15 Woe to those who go deep to hide their plans from the LORD, whose deeds are in darkness, and who say, “Who sees us?
Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be considered like the clay?
Shall the work say of its maker, “He did not make me,” or the thing formed say of its former, “He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not just a very little while until Lebanon becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the neediest among mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless will come to nothing, the scoffer will cease, and all who watch for evil will be cut off—
21 those who make a man guilty by a word, lay a snare for the one who corrects at the gate, and deprive the righteous of justice with empty claims.
22 Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob will no longer be ashamed, nor will his face grow pale.
23 For 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 stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who stray in spirit will gain understanding, and those who grumble will learn instruction.”