The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 29 Prophecy against Unfaithful Judah: Promise of Deliverance

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 29

Prophecy against Unfaithful Judah: Promise of Deliverance

1 Woe to Ariel, the city of Ariel, where David encamped! Add year to year, and let the feasts come one after the other.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and sorrow; and she will be like Ariel to Me.

3 For I will surround you with my camp, and I will encircle you with bulwarks, and I will cast sieges against you.

4 Then you will be brought low, and you will speak from the ground, and your speech will be low from the dust, and your voice will be like a wizard's from the ground, and your speech will hiss from the dust.

5 And the multitude of your enemies will be like small dust, and the multitude of your tyrants like chaff that passes away; in a sudden moment it will happen. 

6 You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake, with a great noise, with a whirlwind and a tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel will be like a dream and a vision of the night, and all who fight against her and her walls, and distress her.

8 They will be like a hungry man who dreams he is eating, but wakes and finds his soul empty; or like a thirsty man who dreams he is drinking, but wakes and finds himself faint and thirsty. So will be the multitude of the nations that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Tarry and wonder, rejoice and cry out: they are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 

10 For 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.

11 Therefore every vision is like the words of a sealed book, which is given to one who is able to read, saying, 'Read this now!' and he will say, 'I cannot, because it is sealed!'

12 Or the book is given to one who is not able to read, saying, 'Read this now!' and he will say, 'I cannot read!'

13 For the Lord said, 'Because this people draws near to me, and with their mouth and with their lips honors me, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is only in the commandments of men, in which they were taught;

14 Behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden. 

15 Woe to those who seek to hide their counsel from the Lord, and who do their work in the dark, and say, "Who sees us?" And who knows us?

16 You pervert everything! As if the potter were like the clay, and the work said of its maker, "He did not make me," and the vessel formed said of its maker, "He knows nothing."

17 Will not Lebanon in a moment be turned into a fruitful field? And the fruitful field be considered a forest?

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

19 And the meek will have joy upon joy in the Lord, and the needy among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the oppressor is brought to nothing, and the scoffer consumes himself, and all who give themselves to iniquity are cut off. 

21 Those who make a man guilty in a dispute, who lay a snare for the one who reproves in the gate, and who reject the righteous without cause.

22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob will not now be ashamed, nor will his face now grow pale.

23 But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, they will sanctify my name in their midst, and they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will fear the God of Israel.

24 And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will learn doctrine.