1 "What sorrow awaits Ariel,  the City of David.
Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
an altar covered with blood.
from low in the dust your words will come.
like a ghost conjured up from the grave.
like the finest of dust.
with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
will vanish like a dream!
will vanish like a vision in the night.
but wakes up still hungry.
but is still faint from thirst when morning comes.
with those who attack Mount Zion."
9 Are you amazed and incredulous?
Then go ahead and be blind.
You are stupid, but not from wine!
You stagger, but not from liquor!
10 For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.
He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
11 All 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." 12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, "We don't know how to read."
"These people say they are mine.
and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear."
who do their evil deeds in the dark!
"The LORD can't see us," they say.
"He doesn't know what's going on!"
"The potter who made me is stupid"?
and those who plot evil will be killed.
by their false testimony will disappear.
and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.
they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel.
They will stand in awe of the God of Jacob.
<< 29:1 Ariel sounds like a Hebrew term that means "hearth" or "altar."
<< 29:13 Greek version reads Their worship is a farce, / for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. Compare Mark 7:7.
<< 29:22 Hebrew of Jacob. See note on 14:1.