Chapter 29

1“Ah, Ariel,a Ariel,City where David camped!Add year to year,Let festivals come in their cycles!

2And I will harass Ariel,And there shall be sorrow and sighing.bShe shall be to Me like Ariel.

3And I will camp against you cround about;I will lay siege to you bwith a mound,And I will set up siegeworks against you.

4And you shall speak from lower than the ground,Your speech shall be humbler than the sod;Your speech shall sound like a ghost’s from the ground,Your voice shall chirp from the sod.

5And like fine dust shall beThe multitude of dyour strangers;And like flying chaff,The multitude of tyrants.”And suddenly, in an instant,

6She shall be remembered of the LORD of HostsWith roaring, and shaking, and deafening noise,Storm, and tempest, and blaze of consuming fire.

7Then, like a dream, a vision of the night,Shall be the multitude of nationsThat war upon Ariel,And all her besiegers, and the siegeworks against her,And those who harass her.

8Like one who is hungryAnd dreams he is eating,But wakes to find himself empty;And like one who is thirstyAnd dreams he is drinking,But wakes to find himself faintAnd utterly parched—So shall be all the multitude of nationsThat war upon Mount Zion.

9Act stupid and be stupefied!Act blind and be blinded!(They are drunk, but not from wine,They stagger, but not from liquor.)

10For the LORD has spread over youA spirit of deep sleep,And has shut your eyes, the prophets,And covered your heads, the seers;

11So that all prophecy has been to youLike the words of a sealed document.If it is handed to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t, because it is sealed”;

12and if the document is handed to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”

13My Lord said:Because that people has approached [Me] with its mouthAnd honored Me with its lips,But has kept its heart far from Me,And its worship of Me has beenA commandment of men, learned by rote—

14Truly, I shall further baffle that peopleWith bafflement upon bafflement;And the wisdom of its wise shall fail,And the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.

15Ha! Those who would hide their plansDeep from the LORD!Who do their work in dark placesAnd say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?”

16eHow perverse of you!Should the potter be accounted as the clay?Should what is made say of its Maker,“He did not make me,”And what is formed say of Him who formed it,f“He did not understand”?

17Surely, in a little while,Lebanon will be transformed into farm land,And farm land accounted as mere brush.

18In that day, the deaf shall hear even written words,And the eyes of the blind shall seeEven in darkness and obscurity.

19Then the humble shall have increasing joy through the LORD,And the neediest of men shall exultIn the Holy One of Israel.

20For the tyrant shall be no more,The scoffer shall cease to be;And those diligent for evil shall be wiped out,

21Who cause men to lose their lawsuits,Laying a snare for the arbiter at the gate,And wronging by falsehoodHim who was in the right.

22Assuredly, thus said the LORD to the House of Jacob, gWho redeemed Abraham:No more shall Jacob be shamed,No longer his face grow pale.

23For when he—that is, his children—behold what My hands have wrought in his midst, they will hallow My name.Men will hallow the Holy One of JacobAnd stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24And the confused shall acquire insightAnd grumblers accept instruction.