Isaiah 29

New Catholic Bible

^{1     [a]}Woe to Ariel, Ariel,^[b]
    the city where David encamped.
Year after year will pass,
    and the festivals will be celebrated annually.
² Yet I will inflict distress upon Ariel,
    and there will be endless mourning and lamentation
    as she becomes like an altar of fire.
³ I will encamp against you like David,
    completely surround you with my forces
    and erect siege-works against you.
⁴ Then, as you lie prostrate, you will speak,
    and from the dust of the earth
    your words will come forth.
Your voice will rise from the ground
    like that of a ghost,
    and your words will whisper out of the dust.
⁵ But the vast throng of your enemies
    will be like fine dust,
and the horde of your ruthless foes
    will be like flying chaff.
Then suddenly, in an instant,
⁶     you will be visited by the Lord of hosts,
accompanied by thunder and earthquake and intense din,
    by whirlwind and tempest
    and the flame of devouring fire.
⁷ Then the horde of all the nations
    that fight against Ariel,
all who fight against her,
    besieging her and causing her great anguish,
will fade away like a dream,
    like a vision in the night.
⁸ Just as when a hungry man dreams of eating
    and then awakens with an empty stomach,
or as when a thirsty man dreams of drinking
    and then awakens to find his throat still parched,
so will it be with the horde of all the nations
    that make war against Mount Zion.

⁹ If you stupefy yourselves,
    you will remain in a stupor.
If you blind yourselves,
    you will remain blind.
Be drunk, but not on wine;
    stagger, but not from strong drink.
¹⁰ For the Lord has poured out on you
    a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes, you prophets,
    and covered your heads, you seers.

^13 [c]Then the Lord said:
    Because this people draws near to me
    only with their words
and honors me only with their lips
    while their hearts are far from me,
and their reverence for me has become
    nothing but a human commandment
    that has been memorized,
¹⁴ therefore, I will continue to deal with this people
    in shocking and amazing ways.
The wisdom of their wise men will perish,
    and the understanding of their discerning men will cease.
¹⁵ Woe to those who go to extreme measures
    to conceal their plans from the Lord,
who perpetrate their evil deeds in the dark,
    saying, “Who sees us? Who knows where we are?”
¹⁶ Such people are truly perverse.
    Is the potter no better than the clay?
Can what is made say of its maker,
    “He did not make me”?
Can a pot say of the potter,
    “He really has no particular skill”?

¹⁷ It will be but a very short time
    before Lebanon will become a fertile field
    and its orchards will be regarded as forests.
¹⁸ On that day the deaf will hear
    the words of a book being read,
and the eyes of the blind will see,
    delivered from gloom and darkness.
¹⁹ The lowly will once again rejoice in the Lord,
    and those who are poor will exult
    in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ For the tyrants will be no more
    and the arrogant will cease to exist;
    all those who revel in evil deeds will be destroyed:
²¹ those whose lies cause a man to be judged guilty,
    those who set traps to capture just arbiters
and thereby deprive the innocent
    from being granted justice.
²² Therefore, thus says the Lord,
    the deliverer of Abraham,
    in regard to the house of Jacob:
No longer will the house of Jacob be ashamed,
    nor will their faces grow pale.
²³ For when they see in their midst
    their children, the work of my hands,
    they will acknowledge my name as holy.
They will reverence the Holy One of Jacob
    and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴ Those who err in spirit will gain understanding,
    and those who are obstinate will receive instruction.