Isaiah 29
29
Chapter 29
A sad song about Ariel
1It will be very bad for Ariel, the city where David lived. #29:1 ‘the city where David lived’ or ‘the city that David attacked’. ‘Ariel’ is used here as a name for Jerusalem. Continue to have your usual feasts every year, but trouble will come!
2I will bring trouble to Ariel. The people there will be very sad and they will weep. Ariel will become like my altar for burnt offerings. #29:2 The Hebrew word for an altar like this is ‘Ariel’.
3I will bring an army to attack you. There will be soldiers all round the city so that nobody can leave. I will build strong towers against the city's walls. 4Then you will fall down to the ground. While you lie there, you will speak. Your words will come quietly from deep down in the dirt. It will seem like the voice of a dead person's spirit. You will sound like a magician who is speaking magic words.
5Your enemies will be like an army of dust. The wind will blow away that crowd of cruel men as if they are chaff. That will all happen very suddenly! 6The Lord Almighty will come with great power. He will come with thunder, earthquake and a loud noise. There will be a great storm with strong winds and a fire that burns up everything.
7The great crowd of armies from all the nations that attack Ariel will quickly disappear. They will soon come to an end, like a dream that someone sees in the night. All the weapons that they bring to attack the city's walls will disappear!
8A hungry man may dream that he is eating a big meal. But as soon as he wakes up, he knows that he is still hungry! A thirsty man may dream that he is drinking. But as soon as he wakes up, he knows that he is still weak and thirsty. That is what it will be like for the great armies from all the nations that have come to attack Mount Zion.
9You are so surprised that you do not believe what I say. You have become completely blind. You are stupid, like people who are drunk, but not from wine! You fall over, but not because you have drunk too much beer!
10It is the Lord who has caused you to be like that. He has caused you to be completely asleep. He has shut the eyes of your prophets and he has covered the heads of your seers.
11You do not understand this vision that the Lord has given to me. It is like the words in a closed book. Give the book to someone who can read. Say to him, ‘Read this, please.’ But he will answer, ‘I cannot read it, because someone has closed it.’ 12Give the book to someone who cannot read and tell them, ‘Read it, please.’ But he will answer, ‘I do not know how to read.’
13The Lord God says, ‘These people open their mouths to worship me. They use their lips to say that I am great. But they are not really thinking about me. When they worship me, they use rules that people have taught them. 14So now I will surprise these people again. I will surprise them with great miracles! Wise people will not seem wise any more. Clever people will no longer seem to be clever.’
15It will be very bad for people who try to deceive the Lord. They try to hide their thoughts from him. They secretly decide to do evil things. They boast and they say, ‘Nobody can see us. Nobody knows what we are doing.’
16Your minds are really confused! You think that the clay is more important than the person who uses it to make pots! A bowl cannot say to its maker, ‘You did not make me!’ A pot cannot say to the potter, ‘You do not know what you are doing!’
17Very soon, Lebanon's forest will become a field of fruit trees. And the field of fruit trees will seem like a forest. 18At that time, deaf people will be able to hear when someone is reading words from a book. Blind people who have been living in a dark place will be able see what is happening. 19And the Lord will make weak people happy again. Poor people will sing with joy, because of what the Holy God of Israel has done.
20Cruel people will disappear. Proud people who insult others will no longer be there. There will be no more people who love to do evil things.
21It will be the same for people who tell lies in court. They deceive the judge at the city gate. They say false things against good people to make them guilty. People who are like that will have gone!
22So this is what the Lord says to Jacob's descendants. He is the one who rescued Abraham. He says, ‘Jacob's descendants will no longer be ashamed. Their faces will show their shame no more. 23They will see that I have blessed them so that they have many children. Then they will agree that I am great. They will praise me, the Holy God of Jacob. They will respect me, Israel's God.
24At that time, people with minds that are confused will understand what is right. And people who like to complain will accept my teaching.’
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Isaiah 29
29
Woe to Jerusalem
1Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Add year to year,
let festivals recur.
2Yet#Or “And” I will inflict Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation,
and it shall be to me like an altar hearth.#Hebrew “Ariel,” which might mean “altar hearth”
3And I will encamp in a circle#The Hebrew text literally reads “like the ball”; the LXX supports an emendation to “David” against you,
and I will lay siege to you with towers#Hebrew “tower”
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4Then#Or “And” you shall be low;
you shall speak from the earth,
and your words#Hebrew “word” will be low, from dust.
And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost,
and your word will whisper from the dust.
5But#Or “And” the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust,
and the multitude of tyrants like chaff that passes by.
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great sound,
storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.
7And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
all those who fight against her and her stronghold,
and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating! And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.
Or#Or “And” as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking! And he wakes up and look, he is faint, and his inner self is longing for water.
So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
9Be astonished and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blinded!
They are drunk but#Or “and” not from wine;
they stagger but#Or “and” not from strong drink.
10For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,
and he has shut your eyes, the prophets,
and he has covered your heads, the seers.
11And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document.
When they give it to one who knows the#The reading tradition (Qere) has “a” instead of “the” document, saying, “Read#Literally “Call” this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.”
12And if the document is given to one who does not know how to read,#Literally “know a document” saying, “Read#Literally “Call” this now!” he says, “I do not know how to read.”#Literally “know a document”
13And the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with its mouth,
and with its lips it honors me,
and its heart is far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,
14therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular and a spectacle with this spectacular people.
And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of its discerning ones shall keep itself hidden.”
15Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh,
and their deeds are#The Hebrew is singular in a dark place.
And they say, “Who sees us?
And who knows us?”
16Your perversity!
As if a potter#Literally “of the one who creates” shall be regarded as the clay! That the product of its maker says, “He did not make me,”
and the thing made into shape says of its potter,#Literally “one who creates” “He has no understanding.”
Blessing after Punishment
17In a very little while#Literally “Not still a trifling of time” shall not Lebanon change into a fruitful land,
and the fruitful land be regarded as a forest?
18And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind shall see out of gloom and darkness.
19And the meek have joy after joy#Literally “shall add joy” in Yahweh,
and the needy of the people shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
20For the tyrant shall be no more,
and the scoffer shall come to an end.
And all those lying in wait for evil shall be cut off;
21those who mislead a person into sin with a word
and set a trap for the arbitrator#Literally “one who argues” in the gate
and guide away the righteous by emptiness.
22Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer grow pale.
23For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will treat my name as holy,
and they will treat the holy one of Jacob as holy,
and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24And those who err in spirit will acquire#Literally “know” understanding,
and those who grumble will learn instruction.
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