The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

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- Chapter 29 -

(Luke 19:41–44)

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.

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 an altar to me where people are burned as sacrifices.

I will cause your enemies to come and camp all around your city; they will surround it by building towers and putting in place other things with which to attack you.

Then you will talk as though you were buried deep in the ground; it will sound like someone whispering from under the ground, like a ghost speaking from a grave.

But suddenly your enemies will be blown away like dust; their armies will disappear like chaff that is blown away by the wind. It will happen very suddenly:

Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, 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.

Then the armies of all the nations that will be attacking Jerusalem will quickly disappear like a dream in the night. Those who will be attacking Jerusalem will suddenly vanish.

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 Mount Zion; they will dream about conquering you, but when they wake up, they will realize that they have not succeeded.

You people of Jerusalem, be amazed and surprised about this! Do not believe what I have said! And continue to be blind 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.

Because Yahweh has prevented the prophets from understanding and telling you his messages, it is as though he had made you go fast asleep.

Yahweh gave me visions; but for you, they are only words on a scroll that is sealed shut. If you give it to those who can read and request they read it, they will say, “We cannot read it because the scroll is sealed.”

When you give it to others who cannot read, they will say, “We cannot read it because we do not know how to read.”

So the Lord says, “These people pretend to worship me. They say good things to pretend to honor me, but they do not think about what I desire. When they worship me, all they do is recite rules that people have made and that they have memorized.

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.

Terrible things will happen to those who try to conceal from me, Yahweh, the evil things that they plan to do; they do those deeds in the darkness and they think, ’Yahweh certainly cannot see us; he cannot know what we are doing!’

They are extremely foolish! They act as though they were the potters and I were the clay! Something that was created should certainly never 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!’”

Sanctification for the Godly

Soon the forests in Lebanon will become fertile fields, and abundant crops will grow in those fields, and that will happen very soon.

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.

Yahweh will enable humble people to be very joyful again. Poor people will rejoice about what the Holy One of Israel has done.

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.

Those who testify falsely in order to persuade judges to punish innocent people will vanish. Similar things will happen to those who by lying in court persuade the judges to make unjust decisions.

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.

When they see that I have blessed them by giving them many children, and all that I have done for them, they will honor the holy name of the Holy One of Israel, and they will revere me, the God to whom they, the descendants of Jacob, belong.

When that happens, those who are not able to think well will think clearly, and those who complain about what I am doing will accept what I am teaching them.”

(Luke 19:41–44)

Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.(a)

I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.

You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.

She will be visited by the LORD of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.

The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.

All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed;”

and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please;” and he says, “I can’t read.”

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the LORD, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”

You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Sanctification for the Godly

Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

The humble also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off—

who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

Therefore the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.

But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”

Footnotes

(a)29:2 or, Ariel