Isaiah 29–30

29TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s Word Will Be Hidden from Some but Revealed to Others

¹How horrible it will be for you Ariel, Ariel,^a

the city where David camped. 

Let year after year go by. 

Let your annual festivals go on. 

²I will torment Ariel, 

and the city will be filled with people grieving and mourning. 

The city will become like Ariel. 

³I will set up war camps all around you. 

I will blockade you with towers. 

I will put up mounds of dirt around you. 

⁴When you have fallen, you will speak as you lie on the ground. 

Your words will be muffled by the dust. 

Your voice will come out of the ground like that of a ghost. 

Your words will be whispered from the dust. 

⁵Your many enemies will be like fine dust. 

Your many foes will be like husks blown by the wind. 

All of this will happen suddenly, unexpectedly. 

⁶The Lord of Armies will punish you 

with thunder, earthquakes, and loud noises, 

with windstorms, rainstorms, and fire storms. 

⁷The armies from all the nations will go to war against Ariel. 

They will go to war against it, blockade it, and torment it. 

All of this will be like a dream, like a vision in the night. 

⁸They will be like hungry people who dream that they’re eating 

and wake up to find they’re hungry. 

They will be like thirsty people who dream that they’re drinking 

and wake up to find they’re lightheaded and parched with thirst. 

This is what will happen to the armies from all the nations 

that fight against Mount Zion. 

⁹If you confuse yourselves, you will be confused. 

If you blind yourselves, you will be blinded. 

You are drunk, but not from wine. 

You stagger, but not from liquor. 

¹⁰The Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. 

He will shut your eyes. (Your eyes are the prophets.) 

He will cover your heads. (Your heads are the seers.^b) 

¹¹To you all these visions will be like words in a book that is closed and sealed. You give this book to someone who can read, saying, “Please read this.” 

He answers, “I can’t read it. It’s sealed.” 

¹²Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.” 

He answers, “I can’t read.” 

¹³The Lord says, 

“These people worship me with their mouths 

and honor me with their lips. 

But their hearts are far from me, 

and their worship of me is ⸤based on⸥ rules made by humans. 

¹⁴That is why I am going to do something completely amazing 

for these people once again. 

The wisdom of their wise people will disappear. 

The intelligence of their intelligent people will be hidden.” 

¹⁵How horrible it will be for those 

who try to hide their plans from the Lord. 

Their deeds are done in the dark, 

and they say, “No one can see us” 

and “No one can recognize us.” 

¹⁶You turn things upside down! 

Is the potter no better than his clay? 

Can something that has been made 

say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? 

Can a piece of pottery 

say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”? 

¹⁷In a very short time Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field 

and the fertile field will be considered a forest. 

¹⁸When that day comes, the deaf will hear the words written in the book. 

The blind will see out of their gloom and darkness. 

¹⁹Humble people again will find joy in the Lord. 

The poorest of people will find joy in the Holy One of Israel. 

²⁰Tyrants will be gone. 

Mockers will be finished. 

All who look for ways to do wrong will come to an end: 

²¹those who make people sin with words, 

those who lay traps for judges, 

those who, without any reason, deny justice 

to people who are in the right. 

²²This is what the Lord, who saved Abraham, says about the descendants of Jacob: 

Jacob will no longer be ashamed. 

Jacob’s face will no longer turn pale. 

²³When they see all their children, 

the children I made with my hands, 

they will acknowledge my name as holy. 

They will treat the Holy One of Jacob as holy. 

They will stand in terror of the God of Israel. 

²⁴Then those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding, 

and those who complain will accept instruction. 

30TH CHAPTER

Judah Should Trust the Lord, Not Egypt

¹The Lord declares, 

“How horrible it will be for those rebellious children. 

They carry out plans, but not mine. 

They make alliances against my will. 

They pile sin on top of sin. 

²They go to Egypt without asking me. 

They look for shelter under Pharaoh’s protection 

and look for refuge in Egypt’s shadow. 

³But Pharaoh’s protection will be their shame, 

and the refuge in Egypt’s shadow will be their disgrace. 

⁴Although Pharaoh’s officials are in Zoan 

and his messengers have reached Hanes, 

⁵the people of Judah will be put to shame 

because that nation can’t help them. 

That nation can’t give aid or help to them. 

It can only offer shame and disgrace.” 

⁶This is the divine revelation about the animals in the Negev. 

“My people travel through lands 

where they experience distress and hardship. 

Lions and lionesses live there. 

Vipers and poisonous snakes live there. 

They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys 

and their treasures on the humps of camels 

to a nation that can’t help them. 

⁷Egypt’s help is completely useless. 

That is why I call it, ‘Rahab^awho sits still.’ 

⁸Now, write this on a tablet for them, and inscribe it in a book 

so that it will be there in the future as a permanent witness. 

⁹These people are rebellious and deceitful children, 

children who refuse to listen to the Lord’s teachings. 

¹⁰They say to the seers,^b‘Don’t see ⸤the future⸥.’ 

They say to those who have visions, 

‘Don’t have visions that tell us what is right. 

Tell us what we want to hear. See illusions. 

¹¹Get out of our way! Stop blocking our path! 

Get the Holy One of Israel out of our sight.’ ” 

¹²This is what the Holy One of Israel says: 

You have rejected this warning, 

trusted oppression and deceit, 

and leaned on them. 

¹³That is why your sin will be 

like a high wall with a bulging crack, ready to fall. 

All of a sudden it will fall. 

¹⁴It will break like pottery. 

It will be smashed, and nothing will be left of it. 

No piece will be big enough to carry live coals from a fireplace 

or to dip water from a reservoir. 

¹⁵This is what the Almighty Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: 

You can be saved by returning to me. 

You can have rest. 

You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting me. 

But you don’t want that. 

¹⁶You’ve said, “No, we’ll flee on horses.” 

So you flee. 

You’ve added, “We’ll ride on fast horses.” 

So those who chase you will also be fast. 

¹⁷One thousand people will flee when one person threatens them, 

and you will flee when five threaten you. 

Then you will be left alone 

like a flagpole on top of a mountain, 

like a signpost on a hill. 

¹⁸The Lord is waiting to be kind to you. 

He rises to have compassion on you. 

The Lord is a God of justice. 

Blessed are all those who wait for him. 

The Lord Will Heal His People’s Wounds

¹⁹You will live in Zion, in Jerusalem. You won’t cry anymore. The Lord will certainly have pity on you when you cry for help. As soon as he hears you, he will answer you. ²⁰The Lord may give you troubles and hardships. But your teacher will no longer be hidden from you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. ²¹You will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left.” ²²Then you will dishonor your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered statues. You will throw them away like clothing ruined by stains. You will say to them, “Get out!” 

²³The Lord will give you rain for the seed that you plant in the ground, and the food that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing. When that day comes, your cattle will graze in large pastures. ²⁴The oxen and the donkeys which work the soil will eat a mixture of food that has been winnowed^cwith forks and shovels. ²⁵There will be brooks and streams on every lofty mountain and every high hill. When the day of the great slaughter comes, towers will fall. ²⁶Then the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun. The light of the sun will be seven times as strong, like the light of seven days. When that day comes, the Lord will bandage his people’s injuries and heal the wounds he inflicted. 

²⁷The name of the Lord is going to come from far away. 

His anger is burning. 

His burden is heavy. 

His lips are filled with fury. 

His tongue is like a devouring flame. 

²⁸His breath is like an overflowing stream. 

It rises neck high, 

sifting the nations with a sieve of destruction, 

placing a bit in the mouths of the people 

to lead them astray. 

²⁹You will sing a song 

like the song you sing on a festival night. 

Your hearts will be happy like someone going out with a flute 

on the way to the Lord’s mountain, to the rock of Israel. 

³⁰The Lord will make his majestic voice heard. 

He will come down with all his might, 

with furious anger, 

with fire storms, windstorms, rainstorms, and hailstones. 

³¹At the sound of the Lord, the people of Assyria will be shattered. 

He will strike them with his rod. 

³²To the sound of tambourines and lyres, the Lord will pound on them. 

He will fight them in battle, swinging his fists. 

³³Topheth was prepared long ago. 

It was made ready for the king. 

It was made deep and wide and piled high with plenty of burning logs. 

The Lord’s breath will be like a flood of burning sulfur, 

setting it on fire.