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UST ISA Chapter 29

◄ ISA 29 ► ║ ═ ©

29 How terrible it will be for the people of Jerusalem,

the city that King David made his royal capital!

Even if they keep celebrating festivals year after year,

2 I will cause great trouble for the people of Jerusalem,

and they will weep and grieve.

The whole city will become like an altar where I burn sacrifices.

3 I will cause enemies to come and surround the city.

They will station troops around it to keep anyone from leaving,

and they will build fortifications to help them attack the city.

4 I will humble the people of Jerusalem so completely

that it will seem as if they are speaking from the ground.

It will seem that what they say is coming faintly from the dust.

They will sound like ghosts speaking from underground

who mumble things there in high-pitched voices.

5 However, suddenly and unexpectedly,

Yahweh will destroy the huge foreign army that is attacking Jerusalem.

He will disperse its many fierce soldiers

the way a strong wind blows away dust or chaff.

6 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

will come to help the people of Jerusalem.

He will defeat their enemies with his great power,

which is like thunder and an earthquake and a very loud noise

and a violent windstorm and a raging fire.

7 An army of soldiers from many nations will attack Jerusalem.

It will besiege the city and cause its people to suffer.

But suddenly it will go away,

as if it had been just a dream that someone was having during the night.

8 The soldiers in that army from many nations will think

that they are going to conquer the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion,

but suddenly Yahweh will defeat them.

They will be like a hungry man who dreams that he is eating

but wakes up and realizes that he is still hungry.

They will be like a thirsty man who dreams that he is drinking

but wakes up and realizes that he is weak from thirst.

9 Even if the people of Jerusalem try to understand what is happening, this will confuse them.

It is as if they are blind and cannot see what Yahweh is doing.

It is as if they are drunk and staggering around

because they have drunk wine and beer.

10 Because the people do not want to understand,

Yahweh has made them unable to understand,

as if he had put them deeply to sleep.

He has prevented their prophets from understanding,

as if he had closed their eyes.

He has prevented their seers from seeing,

as if he had covered their heads.

11 Everything that God has revealed has become to them like the words on a scroll that someone has sealed shut. If a person gave that scroll to someone who could read and said, “Please read this,” he would say, “I can not read it, because someone has sealed it.” 12 And if a person gave that scroll to someone who could not read and said, “Please read this,” he would say, “I am not able to read.”

13 The Lord said,

“I am going to do something because these people seem to honor me by what they say,

but they have not truly devoted themselves to me.

When they worship me,

they only do things that other people have told them to do.

14 Therefore, I am going to amaze these people

by doing more things that make them wonder.

I will show that the people they think are wise are not truly wise.

Yes, I will show that the people they think are intelligent are not truly intelligent.”

15 How terrible it will be for people who try to hide their plans from Yahweh

by making them secretly!

They do things privately and say to themselves,

“No one sees us! No one knows what we are doing!”

16 You are considering things to be the opposite of what they really are.

You are acting as if you were the one who made God.

That is like a pot acting as if it made the potter.

No one should say about the one who made him,

“He did not make me.”

No one should say about the one who formed him,

“He did not understand what he was doing.”

17 But very soon, Yahweh will make things the opposite of what they are now.

It will be as if the great forests of Lebanon become fertile farmland

and as if fertile farmland becomes great forests.

18 At that time, deaf people will be able to hear

when someone reads words from a scroll.

Blind people will see clearly.

They will no longer see dimly or not at all.

19 Poor people will be very happy again

because of what Yahweh has done for them.

He is the holy God of the Israelites.

20 They will be happy because Yahweh will destroy people who terrify others

and the people who have been mocking him.

He will destroy people who eagerly look for opportunities to do wrong things.

21 Those people falsely accuse others who are innocent.

They try to trick the elders who decide cases at the city gate.

They get people to tell lies so that people who deserve to win their cases lose them.

22 Yahweh is the one who rescued Abraham.

Because of what he is going to do,

he says this to the descendants of Jacob:

“The Israelites should no longer feel shame

that makes their faces turn pale.

23 I will enable them to have many descendants,

and when they see those descendants around them,

they will be loyal only to me.

I am the holy God of their ancestor Jacob,

and the Israelites will worship me as their God.

24 Then those who believed wrong things will understand the right things,

and those who were complaining will accept what I teach them.”