VerseAI

NIV

Isaiah 29

  1. 1<pb/><t>Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,</t> <t>the city where David settled!</t> <t>Add year to year</t> <t>and let your cycle of festivals go on.</t>
  2. 2<t>Yet I will besiege Ariel;</t> <t>she will mourn and lament,</t> <t>she will be to me like an altar hearth.<f>[64]</f></t>
  3. 3<t>I will encamp against you on all sides;</t> <t>I will encircle you with towers</t> <t>and set up my siege works against you.</t>
  4. 4<t>Brought low, you will speak from the ground;</t> <t>your speech will mumble out of the dust.</t> <t>Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;</t> <t>out of the dust your speech will whisper. <pb/></t>
  5. 5<t>But your many enemies will become like fine dust,</t> <t>the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.</t> <t>Suddenly, in an instant,</t>
  6. 6<t>the LORD Almighty will come</t> <t>with thunder and earthquake and great noise,</t> <t>with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.</t>
  7. 7<t>Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,</t> <t>that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,</t> <t>will be as it is with a dream,</t> <t>with a vision in the night—</t>
  8. 8<t>as when a hungry person dreams of eating,</t> <t>but awakens hungry still;</t> <t>as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,</t> <t>but awakens faint and thirsty still.</t> <t>So will it be with the hordes of all the nations</t> <t>that fight against Mount Zion. <pb/></t>
  9. 9<t>Be stunned and amazed,</t> <t>blind yourselves and be sightless;</t> <t>be drunk, but not from wine,</t> <t>stagger, but not from beer.</t>
  10. 10<t>The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:</t> <t>He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);</t> <t>he has covered your heads (the seers).</t>
  11. 11<pb/>For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”
  12. 12Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
  13. 13<pb/>The Lord says: <pb/><t>“These people come near to me with their mouth</t> <t>and honor me with their lips,</t> <t>but their hearts are far from me.</t> <t>Their worship of me</t> <t>is based on merely human rules they have been taught.<f>[65]</f></t>
  14. 14<t>Therefore once more I will astound these people</t> <t>with wonder upon wonder;</t> <t>the wisdom of the wise will perish,</t> <t>the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”</t>
  15. 15<t>Woe to those who go to great depths</t> <t>to hide their plans from the LORD,</t> <t>who do their work in darkness and think,</t> <t>“Who sees us? Who will know?”</t>
  16. 16<t>You turn things upside down,</t> <t>as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!</t> <t>Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,</t> <t>“You did not make me”?</t> <t>Can the pot say to the potter,</t> <t>“You know nothing”? <pb/></t>
  17. 17<t>In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field</t> <t>and the fertile field seem like a forest?</t>
  18. 18<t>In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,</t> <t>and out of gloom and darkness</t> <t>the eyes of the blind will see.</t>
  19. 19<t>Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD;</t> <t>the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.</t>
  20. 20<t>The ruthless will vanish,</t> <t>the mockers will disappear,</t> <t>and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—</t>
  21. 21<t>those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,</t> <t>who ensnare the defender in court</t> <t>and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.</t>
  22. 22<pb/>Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: <pb/><t>“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;</t> <t>no longer will their faces grow pale.</t>
  23. 23<t>When they see among them their children,</t> <t>the work of my hands,</t> <t>they will keep my name holy;</t> <t>they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,</t> <t>and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.</t>
  24. 24<t>Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;</t> <t>those who complain will accept instruction.”</t>