Isaiah 29

A Message about Jerusalem

29“What sorrow awaits Ariel

, the City of David. Year after year you celebrate your feasts.H1945H740H740H7151H1732H2583H5595H8141H8141H5362H22822Yet I will bring disaster upon you, and there will be much weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—an altar covered with blood.H6693H740H8386H592H7403I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers and destroy it.H2583H1754H6696H4674H6965H46944Then deep from the earth you will speak; from low in the dust your words will come. Your voice will whisper from the ground like a ghost conjured up from the grave.H8213H1696H776H565H7817H6083H6963H178H776H565H6850H60835“But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust. Your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant,H1995H2114H1851H80H1995H6184H4671H5674H6621H65976I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.H6485H3068H6635H7482H7494H1419H6963H5492H5591H3851H398H7847All the nations fighting against Jerusalem

will vanish like a dream! Those who are attacking her walls will vanish like a vision in the night.H1995H1471H6633H740H6638H4685H6693H2472H3915H23778A hungry person dreams of eating but wakes up still hungry. A thirsty person dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when morning comes. So it will be with your enemies, with those who attack Mount Zion.”H7457H2492H398H6974H5315H7386H834H6771H2492H8354H6974H5889H5315H8264H1995H1471H6633H2022H67269Are you amazed and incredulous? Don’t you believe it? Then go ahead and be blind. You are stupid, but not from wine! You stagger, but not from liquor!H4102H8539H8173H8173H7937H3196H5128H794110For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.H3068H5258H7307H8639H6105H5869H5030H7218H2374H368011All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”H2380H1697H5612H2856H5414H3045H559H7121H559H3201H285612When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”H5612H5414H3045H5612H559H7121H559H304513And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote

.H136H559H3282H5971H5066H6310H8193H3513H7368H3820H7368H3374H3925H4687H58214Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”H3254H6381H5971H6381H6382H2451H2450H6H998H995H564115What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The Lord can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!”H1945H6009H5641H6098H3068H4639H4285H559H7200H304516How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?H2017H2803H3335H2563H4639H559H6213H6213H3336H559H3335H99517Soon—and it will not be very long—the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.H4213H4592H3844H7725H3759H3759H2803H329318In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book, and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.H3117H2795H8085H1697H5612H5869H5787H7200H652H282219The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord. The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.H6035H3254H8057H3068H34H120H1523H6918H347820The scoffer will be gone, the arrogant will disappear, and those who plot evil will be killed.H6184H656H3887H3615H8245H205H377221Those who convict the innocent by their false testimony will disappear. A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.H120H2398H1697H6983H3198H8179H5186H6662H841422That is why the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel

, “My people will no longer be ashamed or turn pale with fear.H559H3068H6299H85H1004H3290H3290H954H6440H235723For when they see their many children and all the blessings I have given them, they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel. They will stand in awe of the God of Jacob.H7200H3206H4639H3027H7130H6942H8034H6942H6918H3290H6206H430H347824Then the wayward will gain understanding, and complainers will accept instruction.H8582H7307H3045H998H7279H3925H3948