Isaiah 29
29
Woe to David’s City
1Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David settled!
Add year to year
and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2Yet I will besiege Ariel;
she will mourn and lament,
she will be to me like an altar hearth.#29:2 The Hebrew for altar hearth sounds like the Hebrew for Ariel.
3I will encamp against you on all sides;
I will encircle you with towers
and set up my siege works against you.
4Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
out of the dust your speech will whisper.
5But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
with a vision in the night—
8as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
9Be stunned and amazed,
blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
stagger, but not from beer.
10The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).
11For 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.” 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.”
13The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.#29:13 Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; / their teachings are merely human rules
14Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
16You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
“You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
“You know nothing”?
17In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20The ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
21those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
who ensnare the defender in court
and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
22Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:
“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
no longer will their faces grow pale.
23When they see among them their children,
the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
those who complain will accept instruction.”
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Isaiah 29: NIV
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The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.
Yeshayah 29
29
1Hoy (woe, doom) to Ariel,#29:1 i.e., Yerushalayim to Ariel, the city where Dovid dwelt! Add ye shanah to shanah; let chaggim (feasts) cycle around.
2Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto me as ariel (altar hearth).#29:2 See Ezek 43:15
3And I will besiege thee all around, and will lay siege against thee with towers, and I will raise metzurot (siegeworks) against thee.
4And thou shalt be brought low, and shalt speak me'eretz (out of the ground), and thy speech shall whisper out of the aphar, and thy voice shall be, like an ov (mediumʼs that has a familiar spirit), out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the aphar.
5Moreover the multitude of thy foes shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as motz (chaff) that in passing bloweth away; indeed, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6Thou shalt be visited [in punishment] by Hashem Tzva'os with ra'am (thunder), and with earthquake, and a kol gadol, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring eish.
7And the multitude of kol HaGoyim that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her metzadah, and that besiege her, shall be as a chalom (dream) of a chazon lailah (night vision).
8It shall even be as when a hungry man hath a chalom, and, hinei, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his nefesh is empty; or as when a thirsty man hath a chalom, and, hinei, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, hinei, he is faint, and his nefesh still thirsts; so shall the multitude of kol HaGoyim be, that fight against Har Tziyon.
9Pause, and wonder? Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with yayin; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10For Hashem hath poured out upon you the ruach tardemah (spirit of deep sleep), and hath closed your eynayim; namely, that of the nevi'im and your heads, you seers, hath He covered.
11And the whole vision is become unto you as the devarim of a sefer that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, now; and he saith, I am not able; for it is sealed;
12And the sefer is delivered to him that with the sefer has no da'as, saying, Read this, now; and he saith, I cannot read this. With sefer I have no da'as.
13Therefore Adonoi says, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their peh, and with their sfatayim do honor Me, but have removed their lev far from Me, and their fear toward Me is mitzvat anashim melummadah (human commandments taught by rote);
14Therefore, hineni, I will again do an astonishing work among this people, even a marvellous work and a peleh (wonder); for the chochmah of their chachamim shall perish, and the binah (understanding) of their sages shall vanish.
15Hoy (woe, doom) unto them that go to great depths to hide their etzah (plan) from Hashem, and their ma'asim are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? And who knoweth us?
16Surely you have things turned around. Shall the Yotzer be esteemed as equal with the khomer (clay); for shall the ma'aseh say of him that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing formed say of Him that formed it, He had no understanding?
17Is it not yet a very little while, and Levanon shall be turned into a carmel, and the carmel shall be esteemed as a ya'ar (forest)?
18And in that day shall the chereshim (deaf persons) hear the devarim of the sefer, and the eynayim of the ivrim shall see out of obscurity, and out of choshech.
19The anaviyim also shall increase their simchah in Hashem, and the evyonei adam (needy of humankind) shall rejoice in the Kadosh Yisroel.
20For the terrifying one is brought to naught, and the scoffer is consumed, and all that strive for avon are cut off;
21That make an adam an offender with a devar, and lay a snare for the mokhiach (reprover, defender) in the sha'ar (gate, court), and turn aside the tzaddik from justice.
22Therefore thus saith Hashem, who redeemed Avraham, concerning Bais Ya'akov, Ya'akov shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now grow fearfully pale.
23But when he seeth his banim, the ma'aseh of Mine hands, in his midst, they shall set apart as kodesh Shmi (My Name), and set apart as kodesh the Kadosh Ya'akov, and shall fear the Elohei Yisroel.
24They also that erred in ruach shall know binah (understanding), and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.
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