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”
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
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible