Isaiah 29
1 [This is a message from Yahweh: ] Terrible things will happen to Jerusalem, the city where [King] David lived. You people continue to celebrate your festivals each year.
Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
2 But I will cause you to experience a great disaster, [and when that happens], people will weep and lament [very much]. Your city will become like [MET] an altar [to me] [where people are burned as sacrifices].
And I will constrain Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an altar hearth before Me.
3 I will cause your enemies [to come to your city]; they will surround it by [building] towers and putting in place other things with which to attack you.
I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.
4 Then you will talk [as though you were] buried deep in the ground [DOU]; it will sound like someone whispering from under the ground, like [SIM] a ghost speaking from a grave.
You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5 But, suddenly your enemies will be blown away like dust; their armies will disappear like [SIM] chaff that is blown away [by the wind]. [It will happen] very suddenly.
But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
6 The Commander of the armies of angels will come [to help you] with thunder and an earthquake and a very loud noise, with a strong wind and a big storm and a fire that will burn up everything.
you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.
7 [Then] the armies of all the nations that will be attacking Jerusalem will quickly disappear like a dream in the night [DOU]. Those who will be attacking Jerusalem will suddenly vanish/disappear.
All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel— even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her— will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,
8 People who are asleep dream about eating food, [but] when they wake up, they are still hungry. People who are thirsty dream about drinking something, [but] when they wake up they are still thirsty. It will be like that when your enemies come to attack Zion Hill; [they will dream about conquering you, but when they wake up, ] [they will realize that they have not succeeded].
as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.
9 You [people of Jerusalem], be amazed and surprised [about this] [IRO]! Do not believe [what I have said] [SAR]! And continue to be blind [IRO] [about what Yahweh is doing]. You are stupid, but it is not because you have drunk a lot of wine. You stagger, but not from drinking alcoholic drinks.
Stop and be astonished; blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not from strong drink.
10 Because Yahweh has prevented the prophets [DOU] from understanding [and telling you his messages], [it is as though] he has caused you to be fast/deeply asleep.
For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.
11 [Yahweh gave me] this vision; [but] for you, it is only words on a scroll that is sealed shut. If you give it to those who can read [and request that they read it], they will say, “We cannot read it because the scroll is sealed.”
And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”
12 When you give it to [others] who cannot read, they will say, “[We cannot read it because] we do not know how to read.”
Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”
13 [So] the Lord says, “These people say that they belong to me. They honor me by what they say [MTY], but they do not think [IDM] about what I [desire]. When they worship me, all they do is recite rules that people have made and that they have memorized.
Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
14 Therefore, again I will do something to amaze these people; I will perform many miracles. And [I will show that] the people [who tell others that they] are wise are not really wise, and [I will show that] the people [who tell others that they] are intelligent are not really intelligent.
Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”
15 Terrible things will happen to those who try to conceal from me, Yahweh, the [evil] things that they plan to do; they do those things in the darkness and they think, ‘Yahweh certainly cannot [RHQ] see us; he cannot [RHQ] know what we are doing!’
Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
16 They are extremely foolish! [They act as though] they were the potters and I was the clay! Something that was created should certainly never [RHQ] say to the one who made it, ‘You did not make me!’ A jar should never say, ‘The potter who made me did not know what he was doing!’”
You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”?
17 Soon [the forests in] Lebanon will become fertile fields, and abundant crops will grow in those fields, and that will happen very soon.
In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest?
18 At that time, deaf people will [be able to hear]; [they will be able to] hear when someone reads from a book; and blind people will [be able to see]; [they will be able to] see things when it is gloomy and [even] when it is dark.
On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 Yahweh will enable humble people to be very joyful again. Poor people will rejoice about what the Holy One of Israel [has done].
The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 There will be no more people who ridicule [others] and no more arrogant people. And those who plan to do evil things will be executed.
For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—
21 Those who testify falsely in order to persuade judges to punish innocent people will vanish/disappear. Similar things will happen to those who by lying in court [persuade judges to] make unjust decisions.
those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
22 That is why Yahweh, who rescued Abraham, says about the people of Israel, “My people will no longer be ashamed; no longer will they show on their faces that they are ashamed.
Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed and no more will his face grow pale.
23 When they see that I have blessed them by giving them many children and doing many other things for them, they will realize that I am the Holy One of Israel, and they will revere me, the God to whom they, the descendants of Jacob, belong.
For when he sees his children around him, the work of My hands, they will honor My name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 When that happens, those who have not been able to think well will think clearly, and those who complain [about what I am doing] will accept what I am teaching them.”
Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.”
