Isaiah 29–30

The Lord Will Judge Jerusalem

29Jerusalem, how terrible it will be for you!

Ariel, you are the city where David settled.

The years will come and go.

Keep on celebrating your regular feasts.

²The Lord says, “Ariel, I will surround you.

Jerusalem, I will get ready to attack you.

Your people will sob.

They will sing songs of sadness.

I will make you like the front of an altar

that is covered with blood.

³I will be like an army that is camped against you on all sides.

I will surround you with towers in order to attack you.

I will build my ramps all around you and set up my ladders.

⁴You will be brought down to the grave.

You will speak from deep down inside the ground.

Your words will be barely heard out of the dust.

Your voice will sound like the voice of a ghost

coming from under the ground.

Your words will sound like a whisper out of the dust.”

⁵Jerusalem, all of your enemies will become like fine dust.

Their terrifying armies will become like straw

that the wind blows away.

All of a sudden, in an instant,

⁶the Lord who rules over all will come.

He will come with thunder, earthquakes and a lot of noise.

He’ll bring windstorms and rainstorms with him.

He’ll send a blazing fire that will burn everything up.

⁷Armies from all of the nations will fight against Ariel.

They will attack it and its fort.

They’ll surround it completely.

But suddenly those armies will disappear like a dream.

They will vanish like a vision in the night.

⁸They will be like a hungry person who dreams he is eating.

But when he wakes up, he’s still hungry.

They will be like a thirsty person who dreams he is drinking.

But when he wakes up, he is weak.

His thirst hasn’t been satisfied.

In the same way, the armies from all of the nations

that fight against Mount Zion will disappear.

⁹People of Jerusalem, be shocked and amazed.

Make yourselves blind so you can’t see anything.

Get drunk, but not from wine.

Be unsteady on your feet, but not because of beer.

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

He has closed the eyes of your prophets.

He has covered the heads of your seers so they can’t see.

¹¹For you, this whole vision is like words that are sealed up in a scroll. Suppose you give it to someone who can read. And suppose you say to him, “Please read this for us.” Then he’ll answer, “I can’t. It’s sealed up.” ¹²Or suppose you give the scroll to someone who can’t read. And suppose you say, “Please read this for us.” Then he’ll answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³The Lord says,

“These people worship me only with their words.

They honor me by what they say.

But their hearts are far away from me.

Their worship doesn’t mean anything to me.

They teach nothing but human rules.

¹⁴So once more I will shock these people

with many wonderful acts.

I will destroy the wisdom of those who think they are so wise.

I will do away with the cleverness of those who think they are so smart.”

¹⁵How terrible it will be for people who do everything they can

to hide their plans from the Lord!

They do their work in darkness.

They think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”

¹⁶They turn everything upside down.

How silly they are to think that potters are like the clay they work with!

Can what is made say to the one who made it,

“You didn’t make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

“You don’t know anything”?

¹⁷In a very short time, Lebanon will be turned into rich farm lands.

The rich farm lands will seem like a forest.

¹⁸At that time those who can’t hear will hear what is read from the scroll.

Those who are blind will come out of gloom and darkness.

They will be able to see.

¹⁹Those who aren’t proud will once again find their joy in the Lord.

And those who are in need will find their joy in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰Those who don’t show any pity will vanish.

Those who make fun of others will disappear.

All those who look for ways to do what is evil will be cut off.

²¹Without any proof, they claim that a man is guilty.

In court they try to trap

the one who speaks up for others.

By using dishonest witnesses they keep those who aren’t guilty

from being treated fairly.

²²Long ago the Lord saved Abraham from trouble. Now he says to Jacob’s people,

“You will not be ashamed anymore.

Your faces will no longer grow pale with fear.

²³You will see your children living among you.

I myself will give you those children.

Then you will honor my name.

You will recognize how holy I am.

I am the Holy One of Jacob.

You will have great respect for me.

I am the God of Israel.

²⁴I will give understanding to you

who find yourselves going down the wrong path.

You who are always speaking against others

will accept what I teach you.”

The Lord Will Judge His Stubborn People

30“How terrible it will be for these stubborn children of mine!”

announces the Lord.

“How terrible for those who carry out plans that did not come from me!

Their agreement with Egypt did not come from my Spirit.

So they pile up one sin on top of another.

²They go down to Egypt

without asking me for advice.

They look to Pharaoh to help them.

They ask Egypt to keep them safe.

³But looking to Pharaoh will only bring them shame.

Asking Egypt for help will bring them dishonor.

⁴Their officials have gone to the city of Zoan.

Their messengers have arrived in Hanes.

⁵But the people of Judah will be put to shame

because they are trusting in a nation that is useless to them.

Egypt will not bring them any help or advantage.

Instead, it will bring them shame and dishonor.”

⁶Here is a message the Lord gave me about the animals in the Negev Desert.

Judah’s messengers carry their riches on the backs of donkeys.

They carry their treasures on the humps of camels.

They travel through a land of danger and suffering.

It’s a land that is filled with lions.

Poisonous snakes are also there.

The messengers travel to a nation

that can’t do them any good.

⁷They travel to Egypt, whose help is totally useless.

That’s why I call it Rahab the Do-Nothing.

⁸The Lord said to me, “Go now.

Write on a tablet for the people of Judah

what I am about to say.

Also write it on a scroll.

In days to come

it will be a witness that lasts forever.

⁹The people of Judah refuse to obey me.

They are children who tell lies.

They will not listen to what I want to teach them.

¹⁰They say to the seers,

‘Don’t see any more visions!’

They say to the prophets,

‘Don’t give us any more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things.

Prophesy things we want to hear even if they aren’t true.

¹¹Get out of our way!

Get off our path!

Keep the Holy One of Israel away from us!’ ”

¹²So the Holy One of Israel speaks. He says,

“You have turned your backs on what I have said.

You have depended on telling people lies.

You have crushed others.

¹³Those sins are like cracks in a high wall.

They get bigger and bigger.

Suddenly the wall breaks apart.

Then it quickly falls down.

¹⁴It breaks into small pieces like a clay pot.

It breaks up completely.

Not one piece is left big enough

for taking coals from a fireplace.

Not one piece is left for dipping water out of a well.”

¹⁵The Lord and King is the Holy One of Israel. He says,

“You will find peace and rest

when you turn away from your sins and depend on me.

You will receive the strength you need

when you stay calm and trust in me.

But you do not want to do what I tell you to.

¹⁶You said, ‘No. We’ll escape on horses.’

So you will have to escape!

You said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses.’

So those who chase you will use faster horses!

¹⁷When one of them dares you to fight,

a thousand of you will run away.

When five of them dare you,

all of you will run away.

So few of you will be left that you will be

like a flagpole on top of a mountain.

You will be like only one banner on a hill.”

¹⁸But the Lord longs to show you his favor.

He wants to give you his tender love.

The Lord is a God who is always fair.

Blessed are all those who wait for him to act!

¹⁹People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you won’t sob anymore. When you cry out to the Lord for help, he will show you his favor. As soon as he hears you, he’ll answer you. ²⁰He might treat you like prisoners. You might eat the bread of trouble. You might drink the water of suffering. But he will be your Teacher. He won’t hide himself anymore. You will see him with your own eyes. ²¹You will hear your Teacher’s voice behind you. You will hear it whether you turn to the right or the left. It will say, “Here is the path I want you to take. So walk on it.”

²²Then you will get rid of the silver statues of your gods. You won’t have anything to do with the gold statues either. All of them are “unclean.” So you will throw them away like dirty rags. You will say to them, “Get away from us!”

²³The Lord will send rain on the seeds you plant in the ground. The crops that grow will be rich and plentiful. At that time your cattle will eat grass in rolling meadows. ²⁴The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat the finest feed and crushed grain. The farmers will use pitchforks and shovels to separate it from the straw.

²⁵At that time the towers of your enemies will fall down. Their soldiers will die. Streams of water will flow on every high mountain and hill.

²⁶The moon will shine like the sun. And the sunlight will be seven times brighter than usual. It will be like the light of seven full days. That will happen when the Lord bandages and heals the wounds and bruises he has brought on his people.

²⁷The Lord will come from far away

in all of his power and glory.

He will show his burning anger.

Thick clouds of smoke will be all around him.

His mouth will speak angry words.

The words from his tongue will be like a destroying fire.

²⁸His breath will be like a rushing flood

that rises up to the neck.

He’ll separate out the nations he is going to destroy.

He’ll place a bit in their jaws.

It will lead them down the road to death.

²⁹You will sing

as you do on the night you celebrate a holy feast.

Your hearts will be filled with joy.

You will be as joyful as people playing their flutes

as they go up to the mountain of the Lord.

He is…