Isaiah 29
29
The Fate of Jerusalem
1God's altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals, 2and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called “God's altar”. There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood. 3God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it. 4Jerusalem will be like a ghost struggling to speak from under the ground, a muffled voice coming from the dust.
5Jerusalem, all the foreigners who attack you will be blown away like dust, and their terrifying armies will fly away like straw. Suddenly and unexpectedly 6the LORD Almighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send tempests and raging fire; 7then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God's altar, all their weapons and equipment — everything — will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night. 8All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.
Disregarded Warnings
9Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop! 10#Rom 11.8The LORD has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them. 11The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can't because it is sealed. 12If you give it to someone who can't read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn't know how.
13 #
Mt 15.8–9; Mk 7.6–7 The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. 14#1 Cor 1.19So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.”
Hope for the Future
15Those who try to hide their plans from the LORD are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing. 16#Is 45.9They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can a thing which someone has made say to its maker, “You didn't make me”? Or “You don't know what you are doing”?
17As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.
18When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see. 19Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the LORD, the holy God of Israel, gives. 20It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed. 21God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest men from getting justice.
22So now the LORD, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame. 23When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honour me and stand in awe of me. 24Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught.”
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Isaiah 29
29
Woe to Jerusalem
1Woe to Ariel,#29:1 Or Altar Hearth, or Lion of God; Hb obscure, also in v. 2 Ariel,
the city where David camped!#2Sm 5:9
Continue year after year;
let the festivals recur.
2I will oppress Ariel,
and there will be mourning and crying,
and she will be to me like an Ariel.
3I will camp in a circle around you;
I will besiege you with earth ramps,
and I will set up my siege towers against you.
4You will be brought down;
you will speak from the ground,
and your words will come from low in the dust.
Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground;#Is 8:19
your speech will whisper from the dust.
5Your many foes#29:5 Lit foreigners will be like fine dust,#Is 17:13; 41:15–16
and many of the ruthless, like blowing chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,#Is 17:14; 30:13; 47:11; 1Th 5:3
6you will be punished by the Lord of Armies
with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise,
storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.#Ex 9:23; 19:16,19; 20:18; 1Sm 2:10; 12:18; Jb 40:9; Ps 77:18; Zch 14:5; Rv 4:5; 11:13
7All the many nations#Mc 4:11–12; Zch 12:9
going out to battle against Ariel —
all the attackers, the siege works against her,
and those who oppress her —
will then be like a dream, a vision in the night.#Jb 20:8; Ps 73:20; Is 17:14
8It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,
then wakes and is still hungry;
and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,
then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.
So it will be for all the many nations
who go to battle against Mount Zion.
9Stop and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk,#29:9 LXX, Tg, Vg read Be drunk but not with wine;
they stagger,#29:9 Tg, Vg read wine; stagger but not with beer.#Lk 1:15
10For the Lord has poured out on you
an overwhelming urge to#29:10 Lit you a spirit of sleep;#Ps 69:23; Is 6:9–10; Mc 3:6
he has shut your eyes (the prophets)
and covered your heads (the seers).#Rm 11:8
11For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document.#Is 8:16; Dn 12:4,9; Mt 13:11; Rv 5:1 If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it,#29:11 Lit If one gives it to one who knows the document, saying, “Read this, please” he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.” 12And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it,#29:12 Lit who does not know the document, saying, “Read this, please” he will say, “I can’t read.”
13The Lord said:
These people approach me with their speeches#Ezk 33:31; Mt 15:8–9; Mk 7:6–7
to honor me with lip-service,#29:13 Lit their mouth and honor me with its lips
yet their hearts are far from me,
and human rules direct their worship of me.#29:13 Lit their fearing of me is a taught command of men
14Therefore, I will again confound these people
with wonder after wonder.#Is 6:9–10; 28:21; 65:7; Hab 1:5
The wisdom of their wise will vanish,#Is 44:25; Jr 8:9; 49:7; 1Co 1:19
and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden.
15Woe to those who go to great lengths
to hide their plans from the Lord.#Ps 10:11,13; Is 28:15; 30:1
They do their works in the dark,
and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” #Jb 22:13; Is 57:12; Ezk 8:12
16You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?#Rm 9:20
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?
17Isn’t it true that in just a little while
Lebanon will become an orchard,
and the orchard will seem like a forest?#Ps 84:6; 107:33,35; Is 32:15
18On that day the deaf will hear#Is 35:5; 42:18–19; 43:8; Mt 11:5; Mk 7:37
the words of a document,
and out of a deep darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19The humble will have joy
after joy in the Lord,
and the poor people will rejoice#Ps 69:32; Is 49:13
in the Holy One of Israel.#Is 1:4
20For the ruthless one will vanish,
the scorner will disappear,#Is 28:14
and all those who lie in wait with evil intent
will be killed —
21those who, with their speech,
accuse a person of wrongdoing,
who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gate
and without cause deprive the righteous of justice.#Is 32:7; Am 5:10,12
22Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham#Is 41:8; 51:2; 63:16 says this about the house of Jacob:
Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer be pale.
23For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands within his nation,
they will honor my name,
they will honor the Holy One of Jacob#2Sm 23:1; Ps 24:6; 76:6; 114:7; Is 2:3
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.#Is 5:16; 8:13
24Those who are confused will gain understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction.
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