1Sorrow to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David lived! Add year to year; let the feasts come round. Let them kill their sacrifices.
2Yet I will bring trouble on Ariel. There will be grief and sorrow there. And it will be to me like Ariel.
3I will camp against you all around. I will lay siege to you with a mound, and I will raise forts against you.
4You will be brought down. You will speak out of the ground, and your words will come low out of the dust. Your voice will come out of the ground like the voice of one who has a familiar spirit, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
5But the crowd of your enemies will be like fine dust, and the crowd of the cruel ones like chaff that blows away. It will happen in a moment, suddenly.
6The LORD of hosts will come to you with thunder, with earthquake and a great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7The crowd of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who bring trouble on her, will be like a dream, like a vision in the night.
8It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and look, he is eating; but he wakes, and he is still empty. Or as when a thirsty man dreams, and look, he is drinking; but he wakes, and look, he is faint, and still longing for a drink. So will the crowd of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
9Stop and be amazed. Cry out and cry aloud. They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes. He has covered the prophets and your rulers, the seers.
11The whole vision has become to you like the words of a sealed book. Men give it to someone who can read and say, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."
12Then the book is given to someone who cannot read, and they say, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot read."
13So the Lord said, "These people come near me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Their fear of me is only a rule taught by men."
14"So look, I will go on doing a marvellous work among this people, a marvellous work and a wonder. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their clever men will be hidden."
15Sorrow to those who go deep to hide their plans from the LORD. Their works are done in the dark, and they say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"
16You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be thought of as the clay? Shall the thing that was made say of the one who made it, "He did not make me"? Shall the thing that was shaped say of the one who shaped it, "He has no understanding"?
17Is it not still a very little while until Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted as a forest?
18In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of gloom and out of darkness.
19The meek will have more and more joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20For the cruel one is brought to nothing, and the mocker is finished, and all who watch for a chance to do evil are cut off.
21They make a man guilty for a word. They set a trap for the one who speaks up in the gate, and they turn the righteous aside for nothing.
22So this is what the LORD says, who redeemed Abraham, about the house of Jacob: "Jacob will not now be ashamed, and his face will not now grow pale."
23But when he sees his children among him, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy. They will keep holy the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel.
24"Those who went astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who complained will learn teaching."