A Message about Jerusalem

1“What sorrow awaits Ariel,a the City of David.

Year after year you celebrate your feasts.

2Yet 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.

3I will be your enemy,

surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.

I will build siege towers

and destroy it.

4Then 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,

6I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you

with thunder and earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.

7All the nations fighting against Jerusalemb

will vanish like a dream!

Those who are attacking her walls

will vanish like a vision in the night.

8A 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.”

9Are 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!

10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.

He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.

11All 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.” 12When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”

13And 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.c

14Because 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.”

15What 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!”

16How 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”?

17Soon—and it will not be very long—

the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field,

and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.

18In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book,

and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.

19The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the LORD.

The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20The scoffer will be gone,

the arrogant will disappear,

and those who plot evil will be killed.

21Those 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.

22That is why the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel,d

“My people will no longer be ashamed

or turn pale with fear.

23For when they see their many children

and all the blessings I have given them,

they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob.

They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24Then the wayward will gain understanding,

and complainers will accept instruction.