Isaiah 29-32
Complete Jewish Bible
29 Woe to Ari’el [fireplace on God’s altar, lion of God] —
Ari’el, the city where David encamped!
Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,
2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari’el.
There will be mourning and moaning,
as she becomes truly an ari’el for me.
3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers
and mount siege-works against you.
4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground;
your words will be stifled by the dust;
your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground,
your words like squeaks in the dust.
5 But your many foes will become like fine powder,
the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff,
and it will happen very suddenly.
6 You will be visited by Adonai-Tzva’ot
with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises,
whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.
7 Then, all the nations fighting Ari’el,
every one at war with her,
the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her
will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating;
but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty;
or like a thirsty man dreaming he’s drinking;
but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted —
it will be like this for the horde of all nations
fighting against Mount Tziyon.
9 If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid!
If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind!
You are drunk, but not from wine;
you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.
10 For Adonai has poured over you a spirit of lethargy;
he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets)
and covered your heads (that is, the seers).
11 For you this whole prophetic vision
has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll.
When one gives it to someone who can read and says,
“Please read this,” he answers, “I can’t, because it’s sealed.”
12 If the scroll is given to someone who can’t read
with the request, “Please read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”
13 Then Adonai said:
“Because these people approach me with empty words,
and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service;
while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me,
and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin —
14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people
with astounding and amazing things,
until the ‘wisdom’ of their ‘wise ones’ vanishes,
and the ‘discernment’ of their ‘discerning ones’ is hidden away.”
15 Woe to those who burrow down deep
to hide their plans from Adonai!
They work in the dark and say to themselves,
“Nobody sees us, nobody knows us.”
16 How you turn things upside down! —
Is the potter not better than the clay,
Does something made say of its maker,
“He didn’t make me”?
Does the product say of its producer,
“He has no discernment”?
17 In but a little while the L’vanon
will be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.
18 On that day the deaf
will hear the words of a book,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will again rejoice in Adonai
and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra’el,
20 for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished,
and all alert to do evil are cut off —
21 those whose words make a man out to be a sinner,
those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate,
and those who groundlessly deny justice
to the one in the right.
22 Therefore, here are the words of Adonai, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya‘akov:
“Ya‘akov will no longer be ashamed,
no longer will his face grow pale.
23 When his descendants see the work of my hands
among them, they will consecrate my name.
Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya‘akov
and stand in awe of the God of Isra’el.
24 Those whose spirits stray will come to understand,
and those who complain will learn their lesson.
30 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says Adonai.
“They make plans, but the plans are not mine;
they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit,
in order to pile sin upon sin.
2 They go down to Egypt but don’t consult me,
seeking refuge in Pharaoh’s protection,
seeking shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will bring you shame,
shelter in Egypt’s shadow will lead to disgrace.
4 Though his princes are at Tzo‘an,
and his envoys have reached Hannes,
5 they all are disappointed
with a people that doesn’t help them,
who give no assistance and no advantage,
only disappointment and disgrace.”
6 A prophecy about the animals in the Negev:
In a land of trouble and anguish,
of lionesses and roaring lions,
of vipers and poisonous flying serpents,
they carry their riches on donkeys’ backs
and their treasures on camels’ humps
to a people who will not help them.
7 For Egypt’s help is worthless, pointless;
so I call her “Arrogance Doing Nothing.”
8 Now go, inscribe it on a tablet,
write it for them in a scroll,
so that on the final day it will be
a witness forever and ever.
9 For this is a rebellious people;
they are lying children,
children who refuse to hear
the Torah of Adonai.
10 They say to the seers, “Do not see!”
to those who have visions, “Do not tell us
the visions you have as they really are;
but flatter us, fabricate illusions!
11 Get out of the way! Leave the path!
Rid us of the Holy One of Isra’el!”
12 Therefore here is what the Holy One of Isra’el says:
“Because you reject this word,
trust in extortion and rely on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
a crack bulging out high on a wall,
showing signs it is ready to fall;
then suddenly, all at once, it breaks.”
14 He will break it like a clay pot,
ruthlessly shattering it into pieces
so tiny not even a potsherd remains
for taking fire from the fireplace
or scooping water from the cistern.
15 For this is what Adonai Elohim,
the Holy One of Isra’el, says:
“Returning and resting is what will save you;
calmness and confidence will make you strong —
but you want none of this!
16 ‘No!’ you say, ‘We will flee on horseback!’
Therefore you will surely flee.
And, ‘We will ride on swift ones!’
So your pursuers will be swift.
17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one,
you all will flee at the threat of five,
until you are left isolated,
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
18 Yet Adonai is just waiting to show you favor,
he will have pity on you from on high;
for Adonai is a God of justice;
happy are all who wait for him!
19 People in Tziyon, who live in Yerushalayim,
you will weep no more.
At the sound of your cry, he will show you his grace;
on hearing it, he will answer you.
20 Though Adonai may give you but bread and water,
and not very much of that;
your teacher will no longer hide himself,
but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.
21 With your ears you will hear a word from behind you:
“This is the way; stay on it,
whether you go to the right or the left.”
22 You will treat as unclean your silver-covered idols
and your cast metal images plated with gold;
you will throw them away, like menstrual cloths;
you will say to them, “Get out of here!”
23 Then he will give you rain for the seed
you use to sow your land;
and the food that comes from the ground
will be rich and abundant.
When that day comes, your cattle
will graze in spacious pastures.
24 The oxen and donkeys that work the land
will eat a tasty mixture,
winnowed free of chaff,
spread by pitchfork and shovel.
25 On every high mountain and lofty hill
will be streams and flowing brooks,
on a day of great slaughter,
when the towers fall.
26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be
as bright as the light of the sun;
and the light of the sun will be seven times stronger,
like the light of seven days [in one],
on the day Adonai binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the bruise caused by the blow.
27 Here comes the name of Adonai from afar,
his anger burning, in thick rising smoke.
His lips are full to the brim with fury,
his tongue a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a racing torrent
that rises up to the neck,
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and put a bridle in the peoples’ mouths to lead them astray.
29 Your song will be like one that is sung
on a night when a holy feast is kept,
and your hearts will be happy,
as if walking to the sound of the flute,
to the mountain of Adonai,
to the Rock of Isra’el.
30 Adonai will make his glorious voice heard,
and he will reveal his arm descending
with furious anger in a flaming firestorm,
with cloudbursts, tempests and hailstones.
31 For Adonai’s voice will terrify Ashur,
as with his scepter he strikes them down.
32 Every sweep of the punishing rod
that Adonai imposes on him
will be to tambourines and lyres,
as he brandishes his arm against them in battle.
33 For the Tofet fire pit has long been ready,
prepared for the king, made large and deep,
with plenty of wood and blazing with fire;
like a stream of sulfur, Adonai’s breath sets it aflame.
31 Woe to those going down to Egypt
expecting help — relying on horses;
trusting in chariots, because they have many,
and in the strength of their cavalrymen —
but not looking to the Holy One of Isra’el,
not consulting Adonai.
2 But he too is wise and can bring disaster,
and he does not take back his words;
he will rise against the house of evildoers
and against the help of those who do wrong.
3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
and their horses flesh and not spirit.
So when Adonai stretches out his hand,
both he who helps will stumble,
and he who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.
4 For here is what Adonai says to me:
“As a lion or lion cub growls at its prey
and isn’t frightened away by the shouts
of hordes of shepherds called out against him —
their voices do not upset him —
so likewise Adonai-Tzva’ot will descend
to fight on Mount Tziyon, on its hill.
5 Like hovering birds, Adonai-Tzva’ot
will protect Yerushalayim.
In protecting it, he will rescue it;
in sparing it, he will save it.
6 People of Isra’el! Return to him
to whom you have been so deeply disloyal!
7 For on that day everyone will discard
his idols of silver and idols of gold,
which you made for yourselves
with your own sinful hands.
8 Then Ashur will fall by a sword not of mortals,
a sword, not of humans, will devour him;
he will flee before the sword,
and his young men will be put to forced labor.
9 His rock, out of terror, will pass away,
and his panicked officers will desert the standard.”
So says Adonai, whose fire is in Tziyon,
whose furnace is in Yerushalayim.
32 There is coming a king who will reign justly
and princes who will rule uprightly.
2 A man will be like a refuge from the wind,
like protection from a storm,
like streams of water on arid ground,
like a rock cliff shading a weary land.
3 The eyes of those seeing will not be closed,
the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.
4 The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully,
the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.
5 The mean person will no longer be called generous,
or the miserly said to be noble;
6 for the mean person will speak meanness,
his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly,
spreading error concerning Adonai,
as he lets the hungry go on starving
and deprives the thirsty of drink.
7 The mean person’s means are mean —
he devises wicked devices
to ruin the poor and needy with lies,
even when their cause is just.
8 But the generous person devises generous things,
and his generosity will keep him standing.
9 You women who are so complacent, listen to me!
Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!
10 In a year and a few days more,
you overconfident women will shudder,
because the vintage will fail,
the harvest will not come.
11 Tremble, you complacent women!
Shudder, you overconfident women!
Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.
12 Beat your breasts in mourning
for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,
13 for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars,
for all the happy homes in the joyful city.
14 For the palace will be abandoned,
the crowded city deserted,
‘Ofel and fortress wastelands forever,
a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks —
15 till the Spirit is poured out on us from above,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
with the fertile field regarded as a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the desert,
and righteousness abide in the fertile field.
17 The effect of righteousness will be peace;
the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.
18 My people will live in a peaceful place,
in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.
19 Just as the forest will surely come down,
the city will surely be laid low.
20 Happy are you who sow by all streams,
letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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