1
“What sorrow awaits Ariel, 1 the City of David.
Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
2
Yet I will bring disaster upon you,
and there will be much weeping and sorrow.
For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means -
an altar covered with blood.
3
I will be your enemy,
surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.
I will build siege towers
and destroy it.
4
Then deep from the earth you will speak;
from low in the dust your words will come.
Your voice will whisper from the ground
like a ghost conjured up from the grave.
5
“But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed
like the finest of dust.
Your many attackers will be driven away
like chaff before the wind.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6
I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
7
All the nations fighting against Jerusalem 2
will vanish like a dream!
Those who are attacking her walls
will vanish like a vision in the night.
8
A hungry person dreams of eating
but wakes up still hungry.
A thirsty person dreams of drinking
but is still faint from thirst when morning comes.
So it will be with your enemies,
with those who attack Mount Zion.”
9
Are you amazed and incredulous?
Don’t you believe it?
Then go ahead and be blind.
You are stupid, but not from wine!
You stagger, but not from liquor!
10
For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
11 All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” 12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”
13
And so the Lord says,
“These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. 3
14
Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”
15
What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord ,
who do their evil deeds in the dark!
“The Lord can’t see us,” they say.
“He doesn’t know what’s going on!”
16
How foolish can you be?
He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!
Should the created thing say of the one who made it,
“He didn’t make me”?
Does a jar ever say,
“The potter who made me is stupid”?
17
Soon - and it will not be very long -
the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field,
and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.
18
In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book,
and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.
19
The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord .
The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20
The scoffer will be gone,
the arrogant will disappear,
and those who plot evil will be killed.
21
Those who convict the innocent
by their false testimony will disappear.
A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice
and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.
22
That is why the Lord , who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel, 4
“My people will no longer be ashamed
or turn pale with fear.
23
For when they see their many children
and all the blessings I have given them,
they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel.
They will stand in awe of the God of Jacob.
24
Then the wayward will gain understanding,
and complainers will accept instruction.