Isaiah 29

Woe to Jerusalem

¹Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!

Add year to year,

²Yet I will inflict Ariel,[#Or “And”]

³And I will encamp in a circle against you,[#The Hebrew text literally reads “like the ball”; the LXX supports an emendation to “David”]

⁴Then you shall be low;[#Or “And”]

And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost,

⁵But the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust,[#Or “And”]

And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.

⁶You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts

with thunder and earthquake and great sound,

⁷And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,

⁸And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating! And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.

So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Be astonished and be amazed!

They are drunk but not from wine;

¹⁰For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,

¹¹And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document.

When they give it to one who knows the document, saying, “Read this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.”

¹³And the Lord said,

“Because this people draw near with its mouth,

and its heart is far from me,

¹⁴therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular and a spectacle with this spectacular people.

And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish,

¹⁵Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh,

And they say, “Who sees us?

¹⁶Your perversity!

As if a potter shall be regarded as the clay! That the product of its maker says, “He did not make me,”

Blessing after Punishment

¹⁷In a very little while shall not Lebanon change into a fruitful land,[#Literally “Not still a trifling of time”]

¹⁸And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,

¹⁹And the meek have joy after joy in Yahweh,[#Literally “shall add joy”]

²⁰For the tyrant shall be no more,

And all those lying in wait for evil shall be cut off;

and set a trap for the arbitrator in the gate

²²Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob:

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,

²³For when he sees his children,

they will treat my name as holy,

²⁴And those who err in spirit will acquire understanding,[#Literally “know”]