Isaiah 29–30

Woe to David’s City

29Woe^d to you, Ariel, Ariel,^e

the city^f where David settled!

Add year to year

and let your cycle of festivals^g go on.

²Yet I will besiege Ariel;^h

she will mourn and lament,ⁱ

she will be to me like an altar hearth.^aj

³I will encamp against you on all sides;

I will encircle^k you with towers

and set up my siege works^l against you.

⁴Brought low, you will speak from the ground;

your speech will mumble^m out of the dust.ⁿ

Your voice will come ghostlike^o from the earth;

out of the dust your speech will whisper.^p

⁵But your many enemies will become like fine dust,^q

the ruthless^r hordes like blown chaff.^s

Suddenly,^t in an instant,

⁶the Lord Almighty will come^u

with thunder^v and earthquake^w and great noise,

with windstorm and tempest^x and flames of a devouring fire.^y

⁷Then the hordes of all the nations^z that fight against Ariel,^a

that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,

will be as it is with a dream,^b

with a vision in the night—

⁸as when a hungry person dreams of eating,

but awakens^c hungry still;

as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,

but awakens faint and thirsty still.^d

So will it be with the hordes of all the nations

that fight against Mount Zion.^e

⁹Be stunned and amazed,^f

blind yourselves and be sightless;^g

be drunk,^h but not from wine,ⁱ

stagger,^j but not from beer.

¹⁰The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:^k

He has sealed your eyes^l (the prophets);^m

he has covered your heads (the seers).ⁿ

¹¹For you this whole vision^o is nothing but words sealed^p in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” ¹²Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³The Lord says:

“These people^q come near to me with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,^r

but their hearts are far from me.^s

Their worship of me

is based on merely human rules they have been taught.^bt

¹⁴Therefore once more I will astound these people

with wonder upon wonder;^u

the wisdom of the wise^v will perish,

the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.^w”

¹⁵Woe to those who go to great depths

to hide^x their plans from the Lord,

who do their work in darkness and think,

“Who sees us?^y Who will know?”^z

¹⁶You turn things upside down,

as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!^a

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed^b it,

“You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,^c

“You know nothing”?^d

¹⁷In a very short time,^e will not Lebanon^f be turned into a fertile field^g

and the fertile field seem like a forest?^h

¹⁸In that dayⁱ the deaf^j will hear the words of the scroll,

and out of gloom and darkness^k

the eyes of the blind will see.^l

¹⁹Once more the humble^m will rejoice in the Lord;

the needyⁿ will rejoice in the Holy One^o of Israel.

²⁰The ruthless^p will vanish,^q

the mockers^r will disappear,

and all who have an eye for evil^s will be cut down—

²¹those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,

who ensnare the defender in court^t

and with false testimony^u deprive the innocent of justice.^v

²²Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed^w Abraham,^x says to the descendants of Jacob:

“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;^y

no longer will their faces grow pale.^z

²³When they see among them their children,^a

the work of my hands,^b

they will keep my name holy;^c

they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One^d of Jacob,

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who are wayward^e in spirit will gain understanding;^f

those who complain will accept instruction.”^g

Woe to the Obstinate Nation

30“Woe^h to the obstinate children,”ⁱ

declares the Lord,

“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,

forming an alliance,^j but not by my Spirit,

heaping sin upon sin;

²who go down to Egypt^k

without consulting^l me;

who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,^m

to Egypt’s shade for refuge.ⁿ

³But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,

Egypt’s shade^o will bring you disgrace.^p

⁴Though they have officials in Zoan^q

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

⁵everyone will be put to shame

because of a people^r useless^s to them,

who bring neither help^t nor advantage,

but only shame and disgrace.^u”

⁶A prophecy^v concerning the animals of the Negev:^w

Through a land of hardship and distress,^x

of lions^y and lionesses,

of adders and darting snakes,^z

the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’^a backs,

their treasures^b on the humps of camels,

to that unprofitable nation,

⁷to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.^c

Therefore I call her

Rahab^d the Do-Nothing.

⁸Go now, write it on a tablet^e for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,^f

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.^g

⁹For these are rebellious^h people, deceitfulⁱ children,

children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.^j

¹⁰They say to the seers,^k

“See no more visions^l!”

and to the prophets,

“Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,^m

prophesy illusions.ⁿ

¹¹Leave this way,^o

get off this path,

and stop confronting^p us

with the Holy One^q of Israel!”

¹²Therefore this is what the Holy One^r of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,^s

relied on oppression^t

and depended on deceit,

¹³this sin will become for you

like a high wall,^u cracked and bulging,

that collapses^v suddenly,^w in an instant.

¹⁴It will break in pieces like pottery,^x

shattered so mercilessly

that among its pieces not a fragment will be found

for taking coals from a hearth

or scooping water out of a cistern.”

¹⁵This is what the Sovereign^y Lord, the Holy One^z of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest^a is your salvation,

in quietness and trust^b is your strength,

but you would have none of it.^c

¹⁶You said, ‘No, we will flee^d on horses.’^e

Therefore you will flee!

You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’

Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

¹⁷A thousand will flee

at the threat of one;

at the threat of five^f

you will all flee^g away,

till you are left^h

like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,

like a bannerⁱ on a hill.”

¹⁸Yet the Lord longs^j to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.^k

For the Lord is a God of justice.^l

Blessed are all who wait for him!^m

¹⁹People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.ⁿ How gracious he will be when you cry for help!^o As soon as he hears, he will answer^p you. ²⁰Although the Lord gives you the bread^q of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers^r will be hidden^s no more; with your own eyes you will see them. ²¹Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice^t behind you, saying, “This is the way;^u walk in it.” ²²Then you will desecrate your idols^v overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold;^w you will throw them away like a menstrual^x cloth and say to them, “Away with you!^y”

²³He will also send you rain^z for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich^a and plentiful.^b In that day^c your cattle will graze in broad meadows.^{d 24}The oxen^e and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder^f and mash, spread out with fork^g and shovel. ²⁵In the day of great slaughter,^h when the towersⁱ fall, streams of water will flow^j on every high mountain and every lofty hill. ²⁶The moon will shine like the sun,^k and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals^l the wounds he inflicted.

²⁷See, the Name^m of the Lord comes from afar,

with burning angerⁿ and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath,^o

and his tongue is a consuming fire.^p

²⁸His breath^q is like a rushing torrent,^r

rising up to the neck.^s

He shakes the nations in the sieve^t of destruction;

he places in the jaws of the peoples

a bit^u that leads them astray.

²⁹And you will sing

as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;^v

your hearts will rejoice^w

as when people playing pipes^x go up

to the mountain^y of the Lord,

to the Rock^z of Israel.

³⁰The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice^a

and will make them see his arm^b coming down

with raging anger^c and consuming fire,^d

with cloudburst, thunderstorm^e and hail.^f

³¹The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria;^g

with his rod he will strike^h them down.

³²Every stroke the Lord lays on them

with his punishing clubⁱ

will be to the music of timbrels^j and harps,

as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.^k

³³Topheth^l has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,

with an abundance of fire and wood;

the breath^m of the Lord,

like a stream of burning sulfur,ⁿ

sets it ablaze.^o