Isaiah 29:9–18

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