Isaiah 28:14-30:11

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁵ Because you said, “We made a covenant with death,
we made a contract with Sh’ol.
When the raging flood passes through,
it will not touch us.
For we have made lies our refuge
and hid ourselves in falsehoods” —

¹⁶ therefore here is what Adonai Elohim says:

“Look, I am laying in Tziyon
a tested stone, a costly cornerstone,
a firm foundation-stone;
he who trusts will not rush here and there.
¹⁷ I will make justice the plumbline
and righteousness the plumb-bob;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
water will overflow the hiding place,
¹⁸ your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your contract with Sh’ol will not stand.
When the raging flood passes through,
you will be trampled down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will take you,
for it will pass through every morning,
day after day, night after night;
understanding the message will be sheer terror.”

²⁰ For, [as the saying goes,]
“The bed is too short for a person to stretch,
and the blanket too narrow [to protect him from cold]
even if he crams himself in.”
²¹ For Adonai will arise, as at Mount P’ratzim,
and storm with rage, as in the Giv‘on Valley;
so he can do his deed, his strange deed,
and perform his task, his alien task.
²² Therefore, now, stop your scoffing,
or your bonds will be further tightened;
for I have heard from Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot
that destruction is decreed for the whole land.

²³ Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention, and hear what I say:
²⁴ Does a farmer sowing keep plowing forever?
Does he never stop breaking up and harrowing his land?
²⁵ No — when he finishes levelling it,
he scatters his dill-seed, sows his cumin,
puts wheat in rows, barley where it belongs,
and plants buckwheat around the edges;
²⁶ because his God has taught him this,
has given him instruction.
²⁷ Dill must not be threshed with a sledge
or cartwheels driven over cumin;
rather, dill one beats with a stick
and cumin with a flail.
²⁸ When crushing grain for bread,
one doesn’t thresh it forever;
one drives the horse and cart wheels over it
but doesn’t crush it to powder.
²⁹ This too comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot —
his counsel is wonderful, his wisdom great.

29 Woe to Ari’el [fireplace on God’s altar, lion of God] —
Ari’el, the city where David encamped!
Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,
² but then I will bring trouble to Ari’el.
There will be mourning and moaning,
as she becomes truly an ari’el for me.
³ I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers
and mount siege-works against you.
⁴ Prostrate, you will speak from the ground;
your words will be stifled by the dust;
your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground,
your words like squeaks in the dust.

⁵ But your many foes will become like fine powder,
the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff,
and it will happen very suddenly.
⁶ You will be visited by Adonai-Tzva’ot
with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises,
whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.

⁷ Then, all the nations fighting Ari’el,
every one at war with her,
the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her
will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.
⁸ It will be like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating;
but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty;
or like a thirsty man dreaming he’s drinking;
but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted —
it will be like this for the horde of all nations
fighting against Mount Tziyon.

⁹ If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid!
If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind!
You are drunk, but not from wine;
you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.
¹⁰ For Adonai has poured over you a spirit of lethargy;
he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets)
and covered your heads (that is, the seers).
¹¹ For you this whole prophetic vision
has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll.
When one gives it to someone who can read and says,
“Please read this,” he answers, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.”
¹² If the scroll is given to someone who can’t read
with the request, “Please read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”

¹³ Then Adonai said:

“Because these people approach me with empty words,
and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service;
while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me,
and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin —
¹⁴ therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people
with astounding and amazing things,
until the ‘wisdom’ of their ‘wise ones’ vanishes,
and the ‘discernment’ of their ‘discerning ones’ is hidden away.”

¹⁵ Woe to those who burrow down deep
to hide their plans from Adonai!
They work in the dark and say to themselves,
“Nobody sees us, nobody knows us.”
¹⁶ How you turn things upside down! —
Is the potter not better than the clay,
Does something made say of its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
Does the product say of its producer,
“He has no discernment”?

¹⁷ In but a little while the L’vanon
will be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.
¹⁸ On that day the deaf
will hear the words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹ The humble will again rejoice in Adonai
and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra’el,
²⁰ for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished,
and all alert to do evil are cut off —
²¹ those whose words make a man out to be a sinner,
those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate,
and those who groundlessly deny justice
to the one in the right.

²² Therefore, here are the words of Adonai, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya‘akov:
“Ya‘akov will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale.
²³ When his descendants see the work of my hands
among them, they will consecrate my name.
Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya‘akov
and stand in awe of the God of Isra’el.
²⁴ Those whose spirits stray will come to understand,
and those who complain will learn their lesson.

30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says Adonai.
“They make plans, but the plans are not mine;
they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit,
in order to pile sin upon sin.
² They go down to Egypt but don’t consult me,
seeking refuge in Pharaoh’s protection,
seeking shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
³ But Pharaoh’s protection will bring you shame,
shelter in Egypt’s shadow will lead to disgrace.
⁴ Though his princes are at Tzo‘an,
and his envoys have reached Hannes,
⁵ they all are disappointed
with a people that doesn’t help them,
who give no assistance and no advantage,
only disappointment and disgrace.”

⁶ A prophecy about the animals in the Negev:

In a land of trouble and anguish,
of lionesses and roaring lions,
of vipers and poisonous flying serpents,
they carry their riches on donkeys’ backs
and their treasures on camels’ humps
to a people who will not help them.
⁷ For Egypt’s help is worthless, pointless;
so I call her “Arrogance Doing Nothing.”
⁸ Now go, inscribe it on a tablet,
write it for them in a scroll,
so that on the final day it will be
a witness forever and ever.
⁹ For this is a rebellious people;
they are lying children,
children who refuse to hear
the Torah of Adonai.
¹⁰ They say to the seers, “Do not see!”
to those who have visions, “Do not tell us
the visions you have as they really are;
but flatter us, fabricate illusions!
¹¹ Get out of the way! Leave the path!
Rid us of the Holy One of Isra’el!”