Isaiah 29:13-24

Common English Bible

The wisdom of their wise

¹³The 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.
¹⁵Doom 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?”
¹⁶You 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”?

¹⁷In just a little while won’t Lebanon become farmland once again,
    and the farmland be considered a forest?
¹⁸On that day: The deaf will hear the words of a scroll and, freed from dimness and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹The poor will again find joy in the Lord,
    and the neediest of people will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
²⁰The 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.

²²Therefore, 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.
²³When 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.
²⁴Those who wander in spirit will have understanding,
    and those who grumble will gain insight.