Jerusalem Is Warned

1Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped!

Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.

2I will bring distress to Ariel,

And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning;

And she will be like an Ariel to me.

3I will camp against you encircling you,

And I will set siegeworks against you,

And I will raise up battle towers against you.

4Then you will be brought low;

From the earth you will speak,

And from the dust where you are prostrate

Your words will come.

Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground,

And your speech will whisper from the dust.

5But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust,

And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away;

And it will happen instantly, suddenly.

6From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,

With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

7And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against Ariel,

Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,

Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8It will be as when a hungry man dreams—

And behold, he is eating;

But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied,

Or as when a thirsty man dreams—

And behold, he is drinking,

But when he awakens, behold, he is faint

And his thirst is not quenched.

Thus the multitude of all the nations will be

Who wage war against Mount Zion.

9Be delayed and wait,

Blind yourselves and be blind;

They become drunk, but not with wine,

They stagger, but not with strong drink.

10For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep,

He has shut your eyes, the prophets;

And He has covered your heads, the seers.

11The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

13Then the Lord said,

“Because this people draw near with their words

And honor Me with their lip service,

But they remove their hearts far from Me,

And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

14Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;

And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,

And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

15Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord,

And whose deeds are done in a dark place,

And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

16You turn things around!

Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,

That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;

Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Blessing after Discipline

17Is it not yet just a little while

Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field,

And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?

18On that day the deaf will hear words of a book,

And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord,

And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished,

Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off;

21Who cause a person to be indicted by a word,

And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,

And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

22Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;

23But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,

They will sanctify My name;

Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob

And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24Those who err in mind will know the truth,

And those who criticize will accept instruction.

Judah Warned against Egyptian Alliance

1“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the Lord,

“Who execute a plan, but not Mine,

And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,

In order to add sin to sin;

2Who proceed down to Egypt

Without consulting Me,

To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh

And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

3Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame

And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.

4For their princes are at Zoan

And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.

5Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,

Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

6The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.

Through a land of distress and anguish,

From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent,

They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys

And their treasures on camels’ humps,

To a people who cannot profit them;

7Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.

Therefore, I have called her

“Rahab who has been exterminated.”

8Now go, write it on a tablet before them

And inscribe it on a scroll,

That it may serve in the time to come

As a witness forever.

9For this is a rebellious people, false sons,

Sons who refuse to listen

To the instruction of the Lord;

10Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;

And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,

Speak to us pleasant words,

Prophesy illusions.

11Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,

Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“Since you have rejected this word

And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,

13Therefore this iniquity will be to you

Like a breach about to fall,

A bulge in a high wall,

Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant,

14Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar,

So ruthlessly shattered

That a sherd will not be found among its pieces

To take fire from a hearth

Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

15For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,

“In repentance and rest you will be saved,

In quietness and trust is your strength.”

But you were not willing,

16And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”

Therefore you shall flee!

“And we will ride on swift horses,”

Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

17One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;

You will flee at the threat of five,

Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top

And as a signal on a hill.

God Is Gracious and Just

18Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,

And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

How blessed are all those who long for Him.

19O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. 20Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. 21Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. 22And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

23Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. 24Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.

27Behold, the name of the Lord comes from a remote place;

Burning is His anger and dense is His smoke;

His lips are filled with indignation

And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

28His breath is like an overflowing torrent,

Which reaches to the neck,

To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve,

And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.

29You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival,

And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,

To go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.

30And the Lord will cause His voice of authority to be heard,

And the descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger,

And in the flame of a consuming fire

In cloudburst, downpour and hailstones.

31For at the voice of the Lord Assyria will be terrified,

When He strikes with the rod.

32And every blow of the rod of punishment,

Which the Lord will lay on him,

Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;

And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.

33For Topheth has long been ready,

Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.

He has made it deep and large,

A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;

The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

Help Not in Egypt but in God

1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

And rely on horses,

And trust in chariots because they are many

And in horsemen because they are very strong,

But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!

2Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster

And does not retract His words,

But will arise against the house of evildoers

And against the help of the workers of iniquity.

3Now the Egyptians are men and not God,

And their horses are flesh and not spirit;

So the Lord will stretch out His hand,

And he who helps will stumble

And he who is helped will fall,

And all of them will come to an end together.

4For thus says the Lord to me,

“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,

Against which a band of shepherds is called out,

And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,

So will the Lord of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

5Like flying birds so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem.

He will protect and deliver it;

He will pass over and rescue it.

6Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. 7For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.

8And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,

And a sword not of man will devour him.

So he will not escape the sword,

And his young men will become forced laborers.

9“His rock will pass away because of panic,

And his princes will be terrified at the standard,”

Declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Glorious Future

1Behold, a king will reign righteously

And princes will rule justly.

2Each will be like a refuge from the wind

And a shelter from the storm,

Like streams of water in a dry country,

Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.

3Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,

And the ears of those who hear will listen.

4The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,

And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

5No longer will the fool be called noble,

Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.

6For a fool speaks nonsense,

And his heart inclines toward wickedness:

To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the Lord,

To keep the hungry person unsatisfied

And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

7As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;

He devises wicked schemes

To destroy the afflicted with slander,

Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

8But the noble man devises noble plans;

And by noble plans he stands.

9Rise up, you women who are at ease,

And hear my voice;

Give ear to my word,

You complacent daughters.

10Within a year and a few days

You will be troubled, O complacent daughters;

For the vintage is ended,

And the fruit gathering will not come.

11Tremble, you women who are at ease;

Be troubled, you complacent daughters;

Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist,

12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up;

Yea, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.

14Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city forsaken.

Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever,

A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;

15Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,

And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,

And the fertile field is considered as a forest.

16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness

And righteousness will abide in the fertile field.

17And the work of righteousness will be peace,

And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

18Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,

And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;

19And it will hail when the forest comes down,

And the city will be utterly laid low.

20How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,

Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.