The Lantern

Isaiah29

Woe to David’s City

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, town where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals come round.

And I will press hard on Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamenting; and she will be to me like an Ariel.

And I will encamp like a circle against you, and lay siege against you with a palisade, and raise siegeworks against you.

And you will be brought low; from the earth you will speak, and from the dust your word will be bowed down; and your voice will be like a ghost’s from the earth, and from the dust your word will chirp.

And the multitude of your strangers will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And it will be in an instant, suddenly.

From the LORD of hosts she will be attended to, with thunder and with earthquake and a great sound, storm and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.

And it will be like a dream, a vision of the night — the multitude of all the nations warring against Ariel, and all who war against her and her siegeworks, and those pressing hard on her.

And it will be as when a hungry man dreams, and see, he is eating — and he awakes and his soul is empty; and as when a thirsty man dreams, and see, he is drinking — and he awakes, and see, he is faint and his soul is craving. So will be the multitude of all the nations warring against Mount Zion.

Linger and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind. They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

For the LORD has poured out over you a spirit of deep sleep, and he has shut your eyes — the prophets — and your heads — the seers — he has covered.

And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document, which they give to one who knows writing, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

And the document is given to one who does not know writing, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I do not know writing.”

And the Lord said: Because this people has drawn near with its mouth, and with its lips they have honored me, but its heart it has kept far from me, and their fear of me has become a commandment of men, learned by rote —

therefore, see, I will go on to do a wonder with this people, wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of its wise men will perish, and the understanding of its understanding ones will hide itself.

Ah, those who go deep to hide counsel from the LORD, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us, and who knows us?”

Your perversity! Shall the potter be reckoned like the clay, that a thing made should say of the one who made it, “He did not make me,” and a thing formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Sanctification for the Godly

Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon turns into the fruitful field, and the fruitful field is reckoned as the forest?

And in that day the deaf will hear the words of a document, and out of gloom and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

And the humble will add gladness in the LORD, and the needy of humankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

For the ruthless one is at an end and the scoffer is finished, and all who are alert for iniquity are cut off —

those who make a man a sinner by a word, and lay a snare for the one who decides at the gate, and turn aside the righteous with emptiness.

Therefore thus says the LORD to the house of Jacob, he who redeemed Abraham: Jacob will not now be ashamed, and his face will not now grow pale.

For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will make my name holy; and they will make holy the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

And those who stray in spirit will know understanding, and the murmurers will learn instruction.