Woe to Ariel (Jerusalem) and Promise of Enlightenment
Isaiah 29:1-24
1Woe, Ariel, Ariel, town where David camped! Snatch year upon year; let the feasts surround it.2And I will press Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation, and it will become to me like Ariel.3And I will camp against you like a circle, and I will confine you with an entrenchment, and I will raise fortresses against you.4And you will be brought low from the land and will speak; from the dust your word will bow down, and your voice will be like a medium from the land, and your word will whisper from the dust.5And the crowd of your strangers will be like thin dust, and the crowd of the ruthless like passing chaff, and it will be to suddenness, suddenly.6From the LORD of Hosts you will be visited with thunder and quaking and a great voice, with whirlwind and tempest and a flame of consuming fire.7And it will be like a dream, a vision of the night, the crowd of all the nations that serve upon Ariel, and all her servers and her stronghold and those who press her.8And it will be as when the hungry dreams and behold, he eats, and he awakes and his soul is worthless, and as when the thirsty dreams and behold, he drinks, and he awakes and behold, he is faint and his soul rushes—so will it be with the crowd of all the nations that serve upon Mount Zion.9Delay and be astounded; smear yourselves and be smeared; be drunk, but not with wine; shake, but not with strong drink.10For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and he has shut your eyes—the prophets—and he has covered your heads—the seers.11And the vision of all will be to you like the words of the sealed scroll, which they give to one who knows the scroll, saying, "Read this, please"; and he says, "I am not able, for it is sealed."12And the scroll is given to one who does not know the scroll, saying, "Read this, please"; and he says, "I do not know the scroll."13And the LORD said: Because this people has approached with its mouth and with its lips has honored me, but its heart has removed itself from me, and their fear of me has become a commandment of men that is taught.14Therefore, behold, I will again do a wonder among this people, a wonder and a wonder, and the wisdom of its wise will perish and the understanding of its prudent will be hidden.15Woe to those who make deep to hide counsel from the LORD, and their deeds are in darkness, and they say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"16Your perversity! Shall the clay be regarded like the one who forms it? Shall the deed say to its maker, "You did not make me," or the intention say to its former, "You have not understood"?17Is it not still a little, a very little, and Lebanon will return to a plantation, and the plantation will be regarded as wood?18And in that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and from gloom and from darkness the eyes of the blind will see.19The poor shall again rejoice in the LORD, and the needy of mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.20For the ruthless shall come to an end, and the scoffer shall cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off.21Those who cause a man to sin by a word, and for the one who rebukes in the gate they set a lure, and they stretch the righteous in formlessness.22Therefore thus says the LORD to the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now 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 accept instruction.