Doubters rebuked by a vision of Israel’s welfare in the latter days

16 O perverse that you are!

Is the potter no more than the clay?

Can the thing that is made maintain

that it has not been made by its maker?

Can the thing that is fashioned deny

that the potter has understanding?

17 Soon Lebanon’s forests will become an orchard,

and orchards will be considered useless forest.

18 In that day even the deaf

will hear words read from a scroll,

and out of the gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind will see.

19 And then will the humble win

a new joy in the Lord,

and the poorest will exult

in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the tyrant will have vanished,

and the scoffer will have ceased;

and those who were zealous in sin

will all have been rooted out,

21 with those who have falsely condemned,

and sought to entrap the judge,

and quibbled to injure the innocent.

22 Thus therefore says the Lord,

the God of the household of Jacob,

Abraham’s redeemer:

no longer will Jacob be ashamed,

no longer will faces grow pale with embarrasment.

23 For the moment he beholds his children,

what my hands have wrought in his midst,

they will count my name as holy,

The Holy One of Jacob

they then will count as holy,

and in awe hold the God of Israel.

24 Those who had erred in spirit

will then win understanding;

and those who had grumbled

will willingly learn the truth.