Isaiah 29: Woe to Jerusalem, David's City

      This chapter deals with: Judgements on Jerusalem and on its enemies. (1-8) The senselessness and hypocrisy of the Jews. (9-16) The conversion of the Gentiles, and future blessings for the Jews. (17-24).
      Ariel is a special name for Jerusalem, which is David's city. It may mean 'lion of God', in the sense that Jerusalem has the strength of a lion, or alternatively, it could also mean 'altar hearth', or the altar of burnt offerings, because Jerusalem is the place of the altar in the temple.
      Hypocrites never can please God, nor make their peace with him. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped round about Jerusalem for protection and deliverance; but now he fought against it. Proud looks and proud language shall be brought down by humbling providences. The destruction of Jerusalem's enemies is foretold. The army of Sennacherib went as a dream; and thus the multitudes, that through successive ages fight against God's altar and worship, shall fall. Speedily will sinners awake from their soothing dreams in the pains of hell.
      The people claimed that they were close to God, but they were a disobedient people, merely going through the motions, and so God would bring judgement on them. They practised their religion as a routine rather than a desire, and in doing so they removed the reality of it. They fooled themselves into believing that they were hidden from God's sight, yet the truth is that there is no place to hide for anyone. God can see us wherever we are, and knows the thoughts of our hearts even before we recognise them. Despite this, there are many people today who believe that they can hide their plans and schemes from God.
      The final passage in this chapter describes the world to come, which will be characterised by justice, understanding and joy, together with endless praise to God.
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¹ Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, 
   the city where David settled! 
Add year to year 
   and let your cycle of festivals go on. 
² Yet I will besiege Ariel; 
   she will mourn and lament, 
   she will be to me like an altar hearth. 
³ I will encamp against you on all sides; 
   I will encircle you with towers 
   and set up my siege works against you. 
⁴ Brought low, you will speak from the ground; 
   your speech will mumble out of the dust. 
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; 
   out of the dust your speech will whisper.

⁵ But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
   the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
⁶ the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
   with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
⁷ Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
   that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
   with a vision in the night—
⁸ as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
   but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
   but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
   that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ Be stunned and amazed,
   blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
   stagger, but not from beer.
¹⁰ The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
   He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
   he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹ For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”

¹² Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³ The Lord says:

   “These people come near to me with their mouth
   and honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
   is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
¹⁴ Therefore once more I will astound these people
   with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
   the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
   to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
   “Who sees us? Who will know?”
¹⁶ You turn things upside down,
   as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
   “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
   “You know nothing”?

¹⁷ In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
   and the fertile field seem like a forest?
¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
   and out of gloom and darkness
   the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹ Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
   the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ The ruthless will vanish,
   the mockers will disappear,
   and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
²¹ those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
   who ensnare the defender in court
   and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

²² Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:

   “No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
   no longer will their faces grow pale.
²³ When they see among them their children,
   the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
   they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
   and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴ Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
   those who complain will accept instruction.”