Isaiah 29:2–13

²Yet I will bring disaster upon you,

and there will be much weeping and sorrow.

For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—

an altar covered with blood.

³I will be your enemy,

surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.

I will build siege towers

and destroy it.

⁴Then deep from the earth you will speak;

from low in the dust your words will come.

Your voice will whisper from the ground

like a ghost conjured up from the grave.

⁵“But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed

like the finest of dust.

Your many attackers will be driven away

like chaff before the wind.

Suddenly, in an instant,

⁶I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you

with thunder and earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.

⁷All the nations fighting against Jerusalem

will vanish like a dream!

Those who are attacking her walls

will vanish like a vision in the night.

⁸A hungry person dreams of eating

but wakes up still hungry.

A thirsty person dreams of drinking

but is still faint from thirst when morning comes.

So it will be with your enemies,

with those who attack Mount Zion.”

⁹Are you amazed and incredulous?

Don’t you believe it?

Then go ahead and be blind.

You are stupid, but not from wine!

You stagger, but not from liquor!

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.

He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.

¹¹All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” ¹²When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”

¹³And so the Lord says,

“These people say they are mine.

They honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

And their worship of me

is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.