Woe to Jerusalem
1Woe to Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David camped!
Continue year after year;
let the festivals recur.
2I will oppress Ariel,
and there will be mourning and crying,
and she will be to me like an Ariel.
3I will camp in a circle around you;
I will besiege you with earth ramps,
and I will set up my siege towers against you.
4You will be brought down;
you will speak from the ground,
and your words will come from low in the dust.
Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground;
your speech will whisper from the dust.
5Your many foes will be like fine dust,
and many of the ruthless, like blowing chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,
6you will be punished by the Lord of Armies
with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise,
storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.
7All the many nations
going out to battle against Ariel —
all the attackers, the siege works against her,
and those who oppress her —
will then be like a dream, a vision in the night.
8It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,
then wakes and is still hungry;
and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,
then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.
So it will be for all the many nations
who go to battle against Mount Zion.
9Stop and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
they stagger, but not with beer.
10For the Lord has poured out on you
an overwhelming urge to sleep;
he has shut your eyes (the prophets)
and covered your heads (the seers).
11For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.” 12And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”
13The Lord said:
These people approach me with their speeches
to honor me with lip-service,
yet their hearts are far from me,
and human rules direct their worship of me.
14Therefore, I will again confound these people
with wonder after wonder.
The wisdom of their wise will vanish,
and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden.
15Woe to those who go to great lengths
to hide their plans from the Lord.
They do their works in the dark,
and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?
17Isn’t it true that in just a little while
Lebanon will become an orchard,
and the orchard will seem like a forest?
18On that day the deaf will hear
the words of a document,
and out of a deep darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19The humble will have joy
after joy in the Lord,
and the poor people will rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the ruthless one will vanish,
the scorner will disappear,
and all those who lie in wait with evil intent
will be killed —
21those who, with their speech,
accuse a person of wrongdoing,
who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gate
and without cause deprive the righteous of justice.
22Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham says this about the house of Jacob:
Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer be pale.
23For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands within his nation,
they will honor my name,
they will honor the Holy One of Jacob
and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24Those who are confused will gain understanding,
and those who grumble will accept instruction.