1Woe, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals go round.
2Yet I will press hard on Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation, and she will be to me like an ariel.
3I will encamp against you all around, and I will besiege you with a siege-post, and I will raise up siege-works against you.
4Then you will be brought low; from the ground you will speak, and from the dust your speech will be laid low. Your voice will be like a ghost’s from the earth, and from the dust your speech will whisper.
5But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And it will happen, in an instant, suddenly.
6From Yahweh of Hosts you will be visited, with thunder and earthquake and a great noise, whirlwind and storm, and a flame of devouring fire.
7And it will be like a dream, a vision of the night: the multitude of all the nations that wage war against Ariel, all who war against her and her siege-works and those who press hard on her.
8It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, but he wakes and his appetite is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, but he wakes, and behold, he is faint and his throat still craves — so will be the multitude of all the nations that wage war against Mount Zion.
9Linger and be astounded; blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not from wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink.
10For Yahweh has poured out over you a spirit of deep sleep; he has shut your eyes — the prophets — and covered your heads — the seers.
11So the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document, which they give to one who can read, saying, ‘Read this, please,’ and he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’
12And the document is given to one who cannot read, saying, ‘Read this, please,’ and he says, ‘I do not know how to read.’
13And the Lord said: Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors me with its lips, while its heart is far from me, and their fear of me has become a commandment of men, taught by rote —
14therefore, behold, I will again do wonders with this people, wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of its wise men will perish, and the discernment of its discerning ones will be hidden.
15Woe to those who go deep to hide their counsel from Yahweh, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, ‘Who sees us? Who knows us?’
16Your perversity! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me,’ and the thing formed say of its former, ‘He has no understanding’?
17Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon will be turned into an orchard, and the orchard will be regarded as a forest?
18On that day the deaf will hear the words of a document, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19And the humble will add joy in Yahweh, and the neediest of humankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the ruthless one will come to nothing, and the scoffer will be finished, and all who are eager for iniquity will be cut off —
21those who make a man out to be a sinner by a word, who lay a snare for the one who reproves in the gate, and who turn aside the righteous with an empty plea.
22Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, to the house of Jacob: No longer will Jacob be ashamed, and no longer will 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 know understanding, and those who grumble will learn instruction.
Open in the interactive reader →Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.