Isaiah 29–30

Warnings to Jerusalem

29How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem,

the city where David camped.

Your festivals have continued

year after year.

²I will attack Jerusalem,

and that city will be filled with sadness and crying.

It will be like an altar to me.

³I will put armies all around you, Jerusalem;

I will surround you with towers

and with devices to attack you.

⁴You will be pulled down and will speak from the ground;

I will hear your voice rising from the ground.

It will sound like the voice of a ghost;

your words will come like a whisper from the dirt.

⁵Your many enemies will become like fine dust;

the many cruel people will be like chaff that is blown away.

Everything will happen very quickly.

⁶The Lord All-Powerful will come

with thunder, earthquakes, and great noises,

with storms, strong winds, and a fire that destroys.

⁷Then all the nations that fight against Jerusalem

will be like a dream;

all the nations that attack her

will be like a vision in the night.

⁸They will be like a hungry man who dreams he is eating,

but when he awakens, he is still hungry.

They will be like a thirsty man who dreams he is drinking,

but when he awakens, he is still weak and thirsty.

It will be the same way with all the nations

who fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Be surprised and amazed.

Blind yourselves so that you cannot see.

Become drunk, but not from wine.

Trip and fall, but not from beer.

¹⁰The Lord has made you go into a deep sleep.

He has closed your eyes. (The prophets are your eyes.)

He has covered your heads. (The seers are your heads.)

¹¹This vision is like the words of a book that is closed and sealed. You may give the book to someone who can read and tell that person to read it. But he will say, “I can’t read the book, because it is sealed.” ¹²Or you may give the book to someone who cannot read and tell him to read it. But he will say, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³The Lord says:

“These people worship me with their mouths,

and honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship is based on

nothing but human rules.

¹⁴So I will continue to amaze these people

by doing more and more miracles.

Their wise men will lose their wisdom;

their wise men will not be able to understand.”

Warnings About Other Nations

¹⁵How terrible it will be for those who try

to hide things from the Lord

and who do their work in darkness.

They think no one will see them or know what they do.

¹⁶You are confused.

You think the clay is equal to the potter.

You think that an object can tell the one who made it,

“You didn’t make me.”

This is like a pot telling its maker,

“You don’t know anything.”

A Better Time Is Coming

¹⁷In a very short time, Lebanon will become rich farmland,

and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.

¹⁸At that time the deaf will hear the words in a book.

Instead of having darkness and gloom, the blind will see.

¹⁹The Lord will make the poor people happy;

they will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰Then the people without mercy will come to an end;

those who do not respect God will disappear.

Those who enjoy doing evil will be gone:

²¹those who lie about others in court,

those who trap people in court,

those who lie and take justice from innocent people in court.

²²This is what the Lord who set Abraham free says to the family of Jacob:

“Now the people of Jacob will not be ashamed

or disgraced any longer.

²³When they see all their children,

the children I made with my hands,

they will say my name is holy.

They will agree that the Holy One of Jacob is holy,

and they will respect the God of Israel.

²⁴People who do wrong will now understand.

Those who complain will accept being taught.”

Warnings to the Stubborn Nation

30The Lord said,

“How terrible it will be for these stubborn children.

They make plans, but they don’t ask me to help them.

They make agreements with other nations, without asking my Spirit.

They are adding more and more sins to themselves.

²They go down to Egypt for help

without asking me about it first.

They hope they will be saved by the king of Egypt;

they want Egypt to protect them.

³But hiding in Egypt will bring you only shame;

Egypt’s protection will only disappoint you.

⁴Your officers have gone to Zoan,

and your messengers have gone to Hanes,

⁵but they will be put to shame,

because Egypt is useless to them.

It will give no help and will be of no use;

it will cause them only shame and embarrassment.”

God’s Message to Judah

⁶This is a message about the animals in southern Judah:

Southern Judah is a dangerous place

full of lions and lionesses,

poisonous snakes and darting snakes.

The messengers travel through there with their wealth on the backs of donkeys

and their treasure on the backs of camels.

They carry them to a nation that cannot help them,

⁷to Egypt whose help is useless.

So I call that country Rahab the Do-Nothing.

⁸Now write this on a sign for the people,

write this on a scroll,

so that for the days to come

this will be a witness forever.

⁹These people are like children who lie and refuse to obey;

they refuse to listen to the Lord’s teachings.

¹⁰They tell the seers,

“Don’t see any more visions!”

They say to the prophets,

“Don’t tell us the truth!

Say things that will make us feel good;

see only good things for us.

¹¹Stop blocking our path.

Get out of our way.

Stop telling us

about God, the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²So this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“You people have refused to accept this message

and have depended on cruelty and lies to help you.

¹³You are guilty of these things.

So you will be like a high wall with cracks in it

that falls suddenly and breaks into small pieces.

¹⁴You will be like a clay jar that breaks,

smashed into many pieces.

Those pieces will be too small

to take coals from the fire

or to get water from a well.”

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

“If you come back to me and trust me, you will be saved.

If you will be calm and trust me, you will be strong.”

But you don’t want to do that.

¹⁶You say, “No, we need horses to run away on.”

So you will run away on horses.

You say, “We will ride away on fast horses.”

So those who chase you will be fast.

¹⁷One enemy will make threats,

and a thousand of your men will run away.

Five enemies will make threats,

and all of you will run from them.

You will be left alone like a flagpole on a hilltop,

like a banner on a hill.

¹⁸The Lord wants to show his mercy to you.

He wants to rise and comfort you.

The Lord is a fair God,

and everyone who waits for his help will be happy.

The Lord Will Help His People

¹⁹You people who live on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will not cry anymore. The Lord will hear your crying, and he will comfort you. When he hears you, he will help you. ²⁰The Lord has given you sorrow and hurt like the bread and water you ate every day. He is your teacher; he will not continue to hide from you, but you will see your teacher with your own eyes. ²¹If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. You should go this way.” ²²You have statues covered with silver and gold, but you will ruin them for further use. You will throw them away like filthy rags and say, “Go away!”

²³At that time the Lord will send rain for the seeds you plant in the ground, and the ground will grow food for you. The harvest will be rich and great, and you will have plenty of food in the fields for your animals. ²⁴Your oxen and donkeys that work the soil will have all the food they need. You will have to use shovels and pitchforks to spread all their food. ²⁵Every mountain and hill will have streams filled with water. These things will happen after many people are killed and the towers are pulled down. ²⁶At that time the light from the moon will be bright like the sun, and the light from the sun will be seven times brighter than now, like the light of seven days. These things will happen when the Lord bandages his broken people and heals the hurts he gave them.

²⁷Look! The Lord comes from far away.

His anger is like a fire with thick clouds of smoke.

His mouth is filled with anger,

and his tongue is like a burning fire.

²⁸His breath is like a rushing river,

which rises to the throat.

He will judge the nations as if he is sifting them through the strainer of destruction.

He will place in their mouths a bit that will lead them the wrong way.

²⁹You will sing happy songs

as on the nights you begin a festival.

You will be happy like people listening to flutes

as they come to the mountain of the Lord,

to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰The Lord will cause all people to hear his great voice

and to see his powerful arm come down with anger,

like a great fire that burns everything,

like a great storm with much rain and hail.

³¹Assyria will be afraid when it hears the voice of the Lord,

because he will strike Assyria with a rod.

³²When the Lord punishes Assyria with a rod,

he will beat them to the music of tambourines and harps;

he will fight against them with his mighty weapons.

³³Topheth ⁿ has been made ready for a long time;

it is ready for the king.

It was made deep and wide

with much wood and fire.

And the Lord’s breath will come

like a stream of burning sulfur and set it on fire.