Isaiah 29

29 ¹Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts keep coming round. ²Yet I will press hard on Ariel, and there will be mourning and lament; she will become to me like an altar hearth. ³I will encamp against you all around; I will besiege you with a wall and raise up siegeworks against you. ⁴You will be brought low; from the ground you will speak, and your words will be muffled in the dust. Your voice will come from the earth like a ghost's, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. ⁵But the horde of your enemies will become like fine dust, and the horde of the ruthless like blowing chaff. And it will happen in an instant, suddenly. ⁶You will be visited by the Father of heaven's armies with thunder and earthquake and a great roar, with whirlwind and storm and the flame of a devouring fire. ⁷And the horde of all the nations that wage war against Ariel, all who fight against her and her stronghold and press hard on her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. ⁸It will be as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, and wakes with his hunger unsatisfied; or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, and wakes faint, his thirst unquenched. So will it be with the horde of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. ⁹Be dumbfounded and stunned; blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink. ¹⁰For our Father has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep; he has shut your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers. ¹¹The whole vision is to you like words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this, please," he says, "I can't; it's sealed." ¹²When the scroll is given to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I can't read."

¹³The Sovereign Father said: "Because this people comes near with its mouth and honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me; their fear of me is a rule taught by men, ¹⁴therefore, look, I will again do wonders with this people, wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their discerning ones will vanish." ¹⁵Woe to those who go deep to hide their plans from our Father, whose deeds are done in the dark, who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"

¹⁶How you twist everything around! Should the potter be treated like his clay—as if the thing made could tell its maker, "He didn't make me," or the thing shaped could tell the one who formed it, "He knows nothing"?

¹⁷Is it not just a little while before Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field counted as a forest? ¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. ¹⁹The humble will find fresh joy in our Father, and the poor among mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel, our Father. ²⁰For the ruthless will be no more and the scoffer will be finished; all who are bent on evil will be cut off, ²¹those who with a word make a man out to be a sinner, who lay a snare for the one who defends justice at the gate, and with empty arguments turn aside the one in the right. ^a a v21 The city gate was the ancient courthouse where legal disputes were heard and judgment given.

²²Therefore this is what our Father says, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "No longer will Jacob be ashamed, no longer will his face grow pale. ²³For when he sees his children, the work of my hands among them, they will keep my name holy; they will keep holy the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of our Father. ^b b v23 When our Father sees his children — formed by his own hands — his name is honored. Restoration begins when the children he made turn to him. ²⁴Those who wander in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction."