Isaiah 29
29
Jerusalem will suffer
The LORD said:
1Jerusalem, city of David,
the place of my altar,#29.1 the place of my altar: One possible meaning for “ariel, ariel” of the Hebrew text. In Hebrew “ariel” can mean “God's hero” or “God's lion” or “God's altar”.
you are in for trouble!
Celebrate your festivals
year after year.
2I will still make you suffer,
and your people will cry
when I make an altar of you.#29.2 when…you: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
3I will surround you and prepare
to attack from all sides.#29.3 from all sides: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. One ancient translation has “like David”.
4From deep in the earth,
you will call out for help
with only a faint whisper.
5Then your cruel enemies
will suddenly be swept away
like dust in a storm.
6I, the LORD All-Powerful,
will come to your rescue
with a thundering earthquake
and a fiery whirlwind.
7Every brutal nation
that attacks Jerusalem
and makes it suffer
will disappear like a dream
when night is over.
8Those nations that attack
Mount Zion
will suffer from hunger
and thirst.
They will dream of food and drink
but wake up weary and hungry
and thirsty as ever.
Prophets who fool themselves
9Be shocked and stunned,
you prophets!
Refuse to see.
Get drunk and stagger,
but not from wine.
10The LORD has made you drowsy;#Ro 11.8.
he put you into a deep sleep
and covered your head.
11Now his message is like a sealed letter to you. Some of you say, “We can't read it, because it's sealed.” 12Others say, “We can't read it, because we don't know how to read.”
13The Lord has said:#Mt 15.8,9; Mk 7.6,7.
“These people praise me
with their words,
but they never really
think about me.
They worship me by repeating
rules made up by humans.
14So once again I will do things#1 Co 1.19.
that shock and amaze them,
and I will destroy the wisdom
of those who claim to know
and understand.”
15You are in for trouble,
if you try to hide your plans
from the LORD!
Or if you think what you do
in the dark can't be seen.
16You have it all backwards.#Is 45.9; Ro 9.20.
A clay dish doesn't say
to the potter,
“You didn't make me.
You don't even know how.”
Hope for the future
17Soon the forest of Lebanon
will become a field with crops,
thick as a forest.#29.17 with…forest: Or “and Mount Carmel will be covered with forests”.
18The deaf will be able to hear
whatever is read to them;
the blind will be freed
from a life of darkness.
19The poor and the needy
will celebrate and shout
because of the LORD,
the holy God of Israel.
20All who are cruel and arrogant
will be gone for ever.
Those who live by crime
will disappear,
21together with everyone
who tells lies in court
and keeps innocent people
from getting a fair trial.
22The LORD who rescued Abraham
has this to say
about Jacob's descendants:
“They will no longer
be ashamed and disgraced.
23When they see how great
I have made their nation,
they will praise and honour me,
the holy God of Israel.
24Everyone who is confused
will understand,
and all who have complained
will obey my teaching.”
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Isaiah 29
29
1Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; 2then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.#29:2 or, Ariel 3I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. 4You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. 6She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. 7The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. 8It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.
9Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. 11All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;” 12and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”
13The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; 14therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”
15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?” 16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
17Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? 18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off— 21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.
22Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. 23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”
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