1 Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the town where David camped! Add one year to another; let the festivals come round in turn.
2 Then I will bring distress on Ariel; there will be mourning and lament, and she will be to me like an Ariel.
3 I will set up camp around you on every side; I will besiege you with towers and put up siege works against you.
4 Brought down low, you will speak from the ground, and your words will mumble up from the dust; your voice will come out of the earth like a ghost's, and your words will chirp from the dust.
5 But the horde of your enemies will become like fine dust, the horde of the ruthless like drifting chaff. And suddenly, in an instant,
6 the LORD of hosts will come to you with thunder, earthquake and a mighty roar, with whirlwind and storm and the flame of a consuming fire.
7 Then the horde of all the nations that make war on Ariel, all who attack her and her fortress and press her hard, will be like a dream, a vision in the night.
8 As a hungry man dreams he is eating but wakes up and is still empty, as a thirsty man dreams he is drinking but wakes up faint and still parched, so will it be for the horde of all the nations that make war on Mount Zion.
9 Stop and be amazed; blind yourselves and stay blind! They are drunk, but not from wine; they stagger, but not from strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.
11 For you this whole vision is like the words of a sealed scroll. If you hand it to someone who can read and say, "Read this, please," he answers, "I can't; it is sealed."
12 And if you hand the scroll to someone who cannot read and say, "Read this, please," he answers, "I don't know how to read."
13 The Lord said: "These people come near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me; their fear of me is only a rule taught by men.
14 That is why I will once more amaze this people with wonder after wonder; the wisdom of their wise will vanish, and the insight of their clever will disappear."
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in the dark and say, "Who can see us? Who will know?"
16 You turn things upside down! Is the potter to be thought of as clay? Can the thing made say of its maker, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
17 In just a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 The humble will rejoice in the LORD more and more, and the needy among men will exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless will be gone, the mocker will disappear, and all who are eager to do wrong will be cut off,
21 those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who set traps for the one who defends justice at the gate, and with empty arguments deny the innocent his rights.
22 So this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says about the house of Jacob: "Jacob will no longer be put to shame; his face will no longer turn pale.
23 When he sees his children among him, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who wander in spirit will gain understanding, and those who grumble will accept teaching."