Isaiah 29
Common English Bible
Ariel besieged but spared
29 Oh, Ariel, Ariel,
town where David encamped!
Year by year, let the festivals come around—
2 but I will oppress Ariel.
There will be mourning and lamentation;
she will be like an Ariel to me.
3 I will surround you like a wall,
and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers,
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4 You will be brought down;
from the ground you will speak;
from low in the dust your speech will come.
Your voice will be like a ghost’s from the earth;
from the dust your words will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will be like fine dust,
the terrible horde like passing chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant, 6 the Lord of heavenly forces will come to you with thunder, earthquake, and a mighty voice,
with whirlwind, tempest, and flames of devouring fire.
7 The horde of nations fighting against Ariel,
and all who make war on her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 It will be like when a hungry person dreams of eating
but wakes up and the mouth is empty.
Or when a thirsty person dreams of drinking
but wakes up and has a dry throat.
So will it be for all the horde of nations
who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be shocked and stunned;
blind yourselves; be blind!
Be drunk, but not on wine;
stagger, but not on account of beer!
10 The Lord has poured on you a spirit of deep sleep,
and has shut your eyes, you prophets,
and covered your heads, you seers.
11 This entire vision has become for you like the words of a sealed scroll. When they give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” that one will say, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.” 12 And when the scroll is given to one who can’t read, saying, “Read this,” that one will say, “I can’t read.”
The wisdom of their wise
13 The Lord says:
Since these people turn toward me with their mouths,
and honor me with lip service
while their heart is distant from me,
and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized,
14 I will go on doing amazing things to these people,
shocking and startling things.
The wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be hidden.
15 Doom to those who hide their plan deep, away from the Lord,
whose deeds are in the dark,
who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You have everything backward!
Should the potter be thought of as clay?
Should what is made say of its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it,
“He doesn’t understand”?
17 In just a little while won’t Lebanon become farmland once again,
and the farmland be considered a forest?
18 On that day: The deaf will hear the words of a scroll and, freed from dimness and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The poor will again find joy in the Lord,
and the neediest of people will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
20 The tyrant will be no more,
the mocker will perish,
and all who plot evil will be eliminated:
21 all who incriminate others wrongly,
who entrap the judge in the gate,
and pointlessly postpone justice for the innocent.
22 Therefore, proclaims the Lord,
the God of[a] the house of Jacob,
who redeemed Abraham:
Jacob won’t be ashamed now,
and his face won’t grow pale now.
23 When he sees his children among them,
the work of my hands,
proclaiming my name holy,
they will make holy the holy one of Jacob,
and stand in awe of Israel’s God.
24 Those who wander in spirit will have understanding,
and those who grumble will gain insight.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:22 Or to
Isaiah 29
Easy-to-Read Version
God Punishes Jerusalem
29 God says, “Look at Ariel,[a] the city where David camped. Keep on having your festivals, year after year. 2 But I will punish Ariel. The city will be filled with sadness and crying, but it will always be my Ariel.
3 “I will put armies all around you, Ariel. I will raise war towers against you. 4 You will be pulled to the ground. Your voice will rise from the ground like the voice of a ghost. Your words come like a whisper from the dirt.”
5 There will be so many foreigners that they will be like dust. Cruel people will be like the chaff blowing in the wind. Then suddenly, 6 the Lord All-Powerful will punish you with earthquakes, thunder, and loud noises. There will be storms, strong winds, and a burning, destructive fire. 7 Many nations will fight against Ariel. It will be a nightmare. Armies will surround Ariel and punish her. 8 But it will also be like a dream to those armies. They will not get what they want. It will be like a hungry man dreaming about food. When the man wakes up, he is still hungry. It will be like a thirsty man dreaming about water. When the man wakes up, he is still thirsty. The same thing is true about all the nations fighting against Zion. Those nations will not get what they want.
9 Be surprised and amazed!
You will become drunk, but not from wine.
Look and be amazed!
You will stumble and fall, but not from beer.
10 The Lord will make you sleepy.
He will close your eyes. (The prophets are your eyes.)
He will cover your heads. (The prophets are your heads.)
11 To you my words are like the words in a book that is closed and sealed.[b] You can give the book to someone who can read and tell that person to read it. But that person will say, “I cannot read the book. It is closed and I cannot open it.” 12 Or you can give the book to someone who cannot read and tell that person to read it. That person will say, “I cannot read the book because I don’t know how to read.”
13 The Lord says, “These people come to honor me with words, but I am not really important to them. The worship they give me is nothing but human rules they have memorized. 14 So I will continue to amaze them by doing powerful and amazing things. Their wise men will lose their wisdom. Even the most intelligent among them will not be able to understand.”
15 Look at them! They try to hide things from the Lord. They think he will not understand. They do their evil things in darkness. They tell themselves: “No one can see us. No one will know who we are.”
16 You turn things upside down. You think the clay is equal to the potter. You think that something that is made can tell the one who made it, “You did not make me!” This is like a pot telling its maker, “You know nothing.”
A Better Time Is Coming
17 This is the truth: After a very short time, Lebanon will become rich farmland, and the farmland will be like thick forests. 18 The deaf will hear the words in the book. The blind will see through the darkness and fog. 19 The Lord will make poor people happy. The poorest people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 This will happen when the people who are mean and cruel have come to an end. It will happen when those who enjoy doing bad things are gone. 21 (They lie about good people. They try to trap people in court. They try to destroy innocent people.)
22 So the Lord, who made Abraham free, speaks to Jacob’s family. He says, “Now the people of Jacob will not be embarrassed and ashamed.
23 Yes, when they see all their children,
the children I myself have made for them,
they will honor[c] my name as holy.
They will respect the God of Israel.
24 Many of these people did not understand, so they did what was wrong. They complained, but now they will learn their lesson.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:1 Ariel A name for the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem. This name means “hearth” or “fireplace” but sounds like the word meaning “Lion of God.” Also in verse 7.
- Isaiah 29:11 sealed A piece of clay or wax was put on the closed book to show that the book should not be opened.
- Isaiah 29:23 honor Or “treat as holy.”
Isaiah 29
New King James Version
Woe to Jerusalem
29 “Woe (A)to [a]Ariel, to Ariel, the city (B)where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, (C)out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 “Moreover the multitude of your (D)foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like (E)chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be (F)in an instant, suddenly.
6 (G)You will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and (H)earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
7 (I)The multitude of all the nations who fight against [b]Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be (J)as a dream of a night vision.
8 (K)It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”
The Blindness of Disobedience
9 Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
(L)They are drunk, (M)but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
10 For (N)the Lord has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has (O)closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, (P)the seers.
11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a [c]book (Q)that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”
(R)And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
12 Then the book is delivered to one who [d]is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”
And he says, “I am not literate.”
13 Therefore the Lord said:
(S)“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me (T)with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
14 (U)Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
(V)For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
15 (W)Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
(X)They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
16 Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the (Y)thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
Future Recovery of Wisdom
17 Is it not yet a very little while
Till (Z)Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?
18 (AA)In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
19 (AB)The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And (AC)the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the [e]terrible one is brought to nothing,
(AD)The scornful one is consumed,
And all who (AE)watch for iniquity are cut off—
21 Who make a man an offender by a word,
And (AF)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the just (AG)by empty words.
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, (AH)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall not now be (AI)ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
23 But when he sees his children,
(AJ)The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
24 These also (AK)who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:1 Jerusalem, lit. Lion of God
- Isaiah 29:7 Jerusalem
- Isaiah 29:11 scroll
- Isaiah 29:12 Lit. does not know books
- Isaiah 29:20 terrifying
Isaiah 29
Living Bible
29 Woe to Jerusalem,[a] the city of David. Year after year you make your many offerings, 2 but I will send heavy judgment upon you, and there will be weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem shall become as her name “Ariel” means—an altar covered with blood. 3 I will be your enemy. I will surround Jerusalem and lay siege against it, and build forts around it to destroy it. 4 Your voice will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you lie buried.
5 But suddenly your ruthless enemies will be driven away like chaff before the wind. 6 In an instant, I, the Lord of Hosts, will come upon them with thunder, earthquake, whirlwind, and fire. 7 And all the nations fighting Jerusalem will vanish like a dream! 8 As a hungry man dreams of eating but is still hungry, and as a thirsty man dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when he wakes up, so your enemies will dream of victorious conquest, but all to no avail.
9 You are amazed, incredulous? You don’t believe it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must! You are stupid—and not from drinking, either! Stagger, and not from wine! 10 For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and seers, 11 so all of these future events are a sealed book to them. When you give it to one who can read, he says, “I can’t, for it’s sealed.” 12 When you give it to another, he says, “Sorry, I can’t read.”
13 And so the Lord says, “Since these people say they are mine but they do not obey me, and since their worship amounts to mere words learned by rote, 14 therefore I will take awesome vengeance on these hypocrites and make their wisest counselors as fools.”
15 Woe to those who try to hide their plans from God, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! “God can’t see us,” they say to themselves. “He doesn’t know what is going on!” 16 How stupid can they be! Isn’t he, the Potter, greater than you, the jars he makes? Will you say to him, “He didn’t make us”? Does a machine call its inventor dumb?
17 Soon—and it will not be very long—the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fruitful field again, a lush and fertile forest. 18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the blind will see my plans. 19 The meek will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord, and the poor shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. 20 Bullies will vanish and scoffers will cease, and all those plotting evil will be killed— 21 the violent man who fights at the drop of a hat, the man who waits in hiding to beat up the judge who sentenced him, and the men who use any excuse to be unfair.
22 That is why the Lord who redeemed Abraham says: “My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed. 23 For when they see the surging birthrate and the expanding economy,[b] then they will fear and rejoice in my name; they will praise the Holy One of Israel and stand in awe of him. 24 Those in error will believe the truth, and complainers will be willing to be taught!
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:1 to Jerusalem, literally, “to Ariel.”
- Isaiah 29:23 the surging birthrate and the expanding economy, literally, “his children, the work of my hands, in his midst.”
Isaiah 29
Lexham English Bible
Woe to Jerusalem
29 Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Add year to year,
let festivals recur.
2 Yet[a] I will inflict Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation,
and it shall be to me like an altar hearth.[b]
3 And I will encamp in a circle[c] against you,
and I will lay siege to you with towers[d]
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4 Then[e] you shall be low;
you shall speak from the earth,
and your words[f] will be low, from dust.
And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost,
and your word will whisper from the dust.
5 But[g] the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust,
and the multitude of tyrants like chaff that passes by.
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great sound,
storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
all those who fight against her and her stronghold,
and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating!
And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.
Or[h] as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking!
And he wakes up and look, he is faint,
and his inner self is longing for water.
So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be astonished and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blinded!
They are drunk but[i] not from wine;
they stagger but[j] not from strong drink.
10 For Yahweh 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.
11 And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. When they give it to one who knows the[k] document, saying, “Read[l] this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.” 12 And if the document is given to one who does not know how to read,[m] saying, “Read[n] this now!” he says, “I do not know how to read.”[o]
13 And the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with its mouth,
and with its lips it honors me,
and its heart is far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,
14 therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular
and a spectacle with this spectacular people.
And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of its discerning ones shall keep itself hidden.”
15 Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh,
and their deeds are[p] in a dark place.
And they say, “Who sees us?
And who knows us?”
16 Your perversity!
As if a potter[q] shall be regarded as the clay!
That the product of its maker says,
“He did not make me,”
and the thing made into shape says of its potter,[r]
“He has no understanding.”
Blessing after Punishment
17 In a very little while[s] shall not Lebanon change into a fruitful land,
and the fruitful land be regarded as a forest?
18 And on that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind shall see out of gloom and darkness.
19 And the meek have joy after joy[t] in Yahweh,
and the needy of the people shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
20 For the tyrant shall be no more,
and the scoffer shall come to an end.
And all those lying in wait for evil shall be cut off;
21 those who mislead a person into sin with a word
and set a trap for the arbitrator[u] in the gate
and guide away the righteous by emptiness.
22 Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says this to the house of Jacob:
“Jacob will no longer be ashamed,
and his face will no longer grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will treat my name as holy,
and they will treat the holy one of Jacob as holy,
and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those who err in spirit will acquire[v] understanding,
and those who grumble will learn instruction.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 29:2 Or “And”
- Isaiah 29:2 Hebrew “Ariel,” which might mean “altar hearth”
- Isaiah 29:3 The Hebrew text literally reads “like the ball”; the LXX supports an emendation to “David”
- Isaiah 29:3 Hebrew “tower”
- Isaiah 29:4 Or “And”
- Isaiah 29:4 Hebrew “word”
- Isaiah 29:5 Or “And”
- Isaiah 29:8 Or “And”
- Isaiah 29:9 Or “and”
- Isaiah 29:9 Or “and”
- Isaiah 29:11 The reading tradition (Qere) has “a” instead of “the”
- Isaiah 29:11 Literally “Call”
- Isaiah 29:12 Literally “know a document”
- Isaiah 29:12 Literally “Call”
- Isaiah 29:12 Literally “know a document”
- Isaiah 29:15 The Hebrew is singular
- Isaiah 29:16 Literally “of the one who creates”
- Isaiah 29:16 Literally “one who creates”
- Isaiah 29:17 Literally “Not still a trifling of time”
- Isaiah 29:19 Literally “shall add joy”
- Isaiah 29:21 Literally “one who argues”
- Isaiah 29:24 Literally “know”
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