Jerusalem

1Ho Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David encamped!

Add year to year;

let the feasts run their round.

2Yet I will distress Ariel,

and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

3And I will encamp against you round about,

and will besiege you with towers

and I will raise siegeworks against you.

4Then deep from the earth you shall speak,

from low in the dust your words shall come;

your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,

and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

5But the multitude of your foes29.5 Cn: Heb strangers shall be like small dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.

And in an instant, suddenly,

6you will be visited by the LORD of hosts

with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

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

all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,

shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8As when a hungry man dreams he is eating

and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,

or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking

and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,

so shall the multitude of all the nations be

that fight against Mount Zion.

9Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,

blind yourselves and be blind!

Be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not with strong drink!

10For the LORD has poured out upon you

a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes, the prophets,

and covered your heads, the seers.

11And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

1329.13: Mt 15.8-9; Mk 7.6-7.And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth

and honour me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote;

1429.14: 1 Cor 1.19.therefore, behold, I will again

do marvellous things with this people,

wonderful and marvellous;

and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”

15Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel,

whose deeds are in the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

1629.16: Is 45.9; Rom 9.20.You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

17Is it not yet a very little while

until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

1829.18-19: Mt 11.5.In that day the deaf shall hear

the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see.

19The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD,

and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

20For the ruthless shall come to naught and the scoffer cease,

and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

21who by a word make a man out to be an offender,

and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

22Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,

no more shall his face grow pale.

23For when he sees his children,

the work of my hands, in his midst,

they will sanctify my name;

they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24And those who err in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who murmur will accept instruction.”