Isaiah 29

Woe to Jerusalem

29“Woe ^ato ¹Ariel, to Ariel, the city ^bwhere David dwelt!

Add year to year;

Let feasts come around.

²Yet I will distress Ariel;

There shall be heaviness and sorrow,

And it shall be to Me as Ariel.

³I will encamp against you all around,

I will lay siege against you with a mound,

And I will raise siegeworks against you.

⁴You shall be brought down,

You shall speak out of the ground;

Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;

Your voice shall be like a medium’s, ^cout of the ground;

And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵“Moreover the multitude of your ^dfoes

Shall be like fine dust,

And the multitude of the terrible ones

Like ^echaff that passes away;

Yes, it shall be ^fin an instant, suddenly.

^6gYou will be punished by the Lord of hosts

With thunder and ^hearthquake and great noise,

With storm and tempest

And the flame of devouring fire.

⁷ⁱThe multitude of all the nations who fight against ²Ariel,

Even all who fight against her and her fortress,

And distress her,

Shall be ^jas a dream of a night vision.

^8kIt shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,

And look—he eats;

But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;

Or as when a thirsty man dreams,

And look—he drinks;

But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,

And his soul still craves:

So the multitude of all the nations shall be,

Who fight against Mount Zion.”

The Blindness of Disobedience

⁹Pause and wonder!

Blind yourselves and be blind!

^lThey are drunk, ^mbut not with wine;

They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.

¹⁰For ⁿthe Lord has poured out on you

The spirit of deep sleep,

And has ^oclosed your eyes, namely, the prophets;

And He has covered your heads, namely, ^pthe seers.

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a ³book ^qthat is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

^rAnd he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who ⁴is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

¹³Therefore the Lord said:

^s“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths

And honor Me ^twith their lips,

But have removed their hearts far from Me,

And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

^14uTherefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work

Among this people,

A marvelous work and a wonder;

^vFor the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

^15wWoe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,

And their works are in the dark;

^xThey say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”

¹⁶Surely you have things turned around!

Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;

For shall the ^ything made say of him who made it,

“He did not make me”?

Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while

Till ^zLebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?

^18aIn that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,

And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

^19bThe humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,

And ^cthe poor among men shall rejoice

In the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ⁵terrible one is brought to nothing,

^dThe scornful one is consumed,

And all who ^ewatch for iniquity are cut off—

²¹Who make a man an offender by a word,

And ^flay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

And turn aside the just ^gby empty words.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord, ^hwho redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ⁱashamed,

Nor shall his face now grow pale;

²³But when he sees his children,

^jThe work of My hands, in his midst,

They will hallow My name,

And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,

And fear the God of Israel.

²⁴These also ^kwho erred in spirit will come to understanding,

And those who complained will learn doctrine.”