To those newly weaned from milk,
Just taken away from the breast?
10That same mutter upon mutter,
Murmur upon murmur,
Now here, now there!”
11Truly, as one who speaks to that people in a stammering jargon and an alien tongue 12is he who declares to them, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest;e this is the place of repose.” They refuse to listen. 13To them the word of the LORD is:
“Mutter upon mutter,
Murmur upon murmur,
Now here, now there.”
And so they will march,f
But they shall fall backward,
And be injured and snared and captured.
14Hear now the word of the LORD,
You men of mockery,
g-Who govern that people-g
In Jerusalem!
15For you have said,
“We have made a covenant with Death,
Concluded a pact with Sheol.
When the sweeping flood passes through,
It shall not reach us;
For we have made falsehood our refuge,
Taken shelter in treachery.”
16Assuredly,
Thus said the Lord GOD:
“Behold, I will found in Zion,
Stone by stone,
h-A tower of precious cornerstones,-h
Exceedingly firm;
He who trusts need not fear.
17But I will apply judgment as a measuring line
And retributioni as weights;j
Hail shall sweep away the refuge of falsehood,
And flood-waters engulf your shelter.
18Your covenant with Death shall be annulled,
Your pact with Sheol shall not endure;
When the sweeping flood passes through,
You shall be its victims.
19It shall catch you
Every time it passes through;
It shall pass through every morning,
Every day and every night.
And it shall be sheer horror
To grasp the message.”
20The couch is too short for stretching out,
And the cover too narrow for curling up!
21For the LORD will arise
As on the hill of Perazim,
He will rouse Himself
As in the vale of Gibeon,
To do His work—
Strange is His work!
And to perform His task—
Astounding is His task!k
22Therefore, refrain from mockery,
Lest your bonds be tightened.
For I have heard a decree of destruction
From my Lord GOD of Hosts
Against all the land.
23Give diligent ear to my words,
Attend carefully to what I say.
24Does he who plows to sow
Plow all the time,
Breaking up and furrowing his land?
25When he has smoothed its surface,
Does he not rather broadcast black cumin
And scatter cumin.
Or set wheat in a row,l
Barley in a strip,
And emmer in a patch?
26For He teaches him the right manner,
His God instructs him.
27So, too, black cumin is not threshed with a threshing board,
Nor is the wheel of a threshing sledge rolled over cumin;
But black cumin is beaten out with a stick
And cumin with a rod.
28It is cereal that is crushed.m
For n-even if-n he threshes it thoroughly,
And the wheel of his sledge-hand his horses overwhelm it,-h
He does not crush it.
29That, too, is ordered by the LORD of Hosts;
His counsel is unfathomable,
His wisdom marvelous.
29 “Ah, Ariel,a Ariel,
City where David camped!
Add year to year,
Let festivals come in their cycles!
2And I will harass Ariel,
And there shall be sorrow and sighing.
b-She shall be to Me like Ariel.-b
3And I will camp against you c-round about; -c
I will lay siege to you b-with a mound,-b
And I will set up siegeworks against you.
4And you shall speak from lower than the ground,
Your speech shall be humbler than the sod;
Your speech shall sound like a ghost’s from the ground,
Your voice shall chirp from the sod.
5And like fine dust shall be
The multitude of d-your strangers;-d>
And like flying chaff,
The multitude of tyrants.”
And suddenly, in an instant,
6She shall be remembered of the LORD of Hosts
With roaring, and shaking, and deafening noise,
Storm, and tempest, and blaze of consuming fire.
7Then, like a dream, a vision of the night,
Shall be the multitude of nations
That war upon Ariel,
And all her besiegers, and the siegeworks against her,
And those who harass her.
8Like one who is hungry
And dreams he is eating,
But wakes to find himself empty;
And like one who is thirsty
And dreams he is drinking,
But wakes to find himself faint
And utterly parched—
So shall be all the multitude of nations
That war upon Mount Zion.
9Act stupid and be stupefied!
Act blind and be blinded!
(They are drunk, but not from wine,
They stagger, but not from liquor.)
10For the LORD has spread over you
A spirit of deep sleep,
And has shut your eyes, the prophets,
And covered your heads, the seers;
11So that all prophecy has been to you
Like the words of a sealed document.
If it is handed to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t, because it is sealed”; 12and if the document is handed to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”
13My Lord said:
Because that people has approached [Me] with its mouth
And honored Me with its lips,
But has kept its heart far from Me,
And its worship of Me has been
A commandment of men, learned by rote—
14Truly, I shall further baffle that people
With bafflement upon bafflement;
And the wisdom of its wise shall fail,
And the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.
15Ha! Those who would hide their plans
Deep from the LORD!
Who do their work in dark places
And say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?”
16e-How perverse of you!
Should the potter be accounted as the clay?-e
Should what is made say of its Maker,
“He did not make me,”
And what is formed say of Him who formed it,
f-“He did not understand?”-f
17Surely, in a little while,
Lebanon will be transformed into farm land,
And farm land accounted as mere brush.
18In that day, the deaf shall hear even written words,
And the eyes of the blind shall see
Even in darkness and obscurity.
19Then the humble shall have increasing joy through the LORD,
And the neediest of men shall exult
In the Holy One of Israel.
20For the tyrant shall be no more,
The scoffer shall cease to be;
And those diligent for evil shall be wiped out,
21Who cause men to lose their lawsuits,
Laying a snare for the arbiter at the gate,
And wronging by falsehood
Him who was in the right.
22Assuredly, thus said the LORD to the House of Jacob, g-Who redeemed Abraham:-g
No more shall Jacob be shamed,
No longer his face grow pale.
23For when he—that is, his children—behold what My hands have wrought in his midst, they will hallow My name.
Men will hallow the Holy One of Jacob
And stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24And the confused shall acquire insight
And grumblers accept instruction.
jugs or like the clay?”
30 Oh, disloyal sons!
—declares the LORD—
Making plans
Against My wishes,
Weaving schemes
Against My will,
Thereby piling
Guilt on guilt—
2Who set out to go down to Egypt
Without asking Me,
To seek refuge with Pharaoh,
To seek shelter under the protection of Egypt.
3The refuge with Pharaoh shall result in your shame;
The shelter under Egypt’s protection, in your chagrin.
4Though his officers are present in Zoan,a
And his messengersb reach as far as Hanes,
5They all shall come to shame
Because of a people that does not avail them,
That is of no help or avail,
But [brings] only chagrin and disgrace.
6c-The “Beasts of the Negeb” Pronouncement.
Through a-cland of distress and hardship,
Of lion and roaringd king-beast,
Of viper and flying seraph,e
They convey their wealth on the backs of asses,
Their treasures on camels’ humps,
To a people of no avail.
7For the help of Egypt
Shall be vain and empty.
Truly, I call this,
f-“They are a threat that has ceased.”-f
8Now,
Go, write it down on a tablet
And inscribe it in a record,
That it may be with them for future days,
A witnessg forever.
9For it is a rebellious people,
Faithless children,
Children who refused to heed
The instruction of the LORD;
10Who said to the seers,
“Do not see,”
To the prophets, “Do not prophesy truth to us;
Speak to us falsehoods,
Prophesy delusions.
11Leave the way!
Get off the path!
Let us hear no more
About the Holy One of Israel!”
12Assuredly,
Thus said the Holy One of Israel:
Because you have rejected this word,
And have put your trust and reliance
In that which is fraudulent and tortuous—
13Of a surety,
This iniquity shall work on you
Like a spreading breach that occurs in a lofty wall,
Whose crash comes sudden and swift.
14It is smashed as one smashes an earthen jug,
Ruthlessly shattered
So that no shard is left in its breakage
To scoop coals from a brazier,
Or ladle water from a puddle.
15For thus said my Lord GOD,
The Holy One of Israel,
“You shall triumph by stillness and quiet;
Your victory shall come about
Through calm and confidence.”
But you refused.
16“No,” you declared.
“We shall flee on steeds”—
Therefore you shall flee!
“We shall ride on swift mounts”—
Therefore your pursuers shall prove swift!
17One thousand before the shout of one—
You shall flee at the shout of five;
Till what is left of you
Is like a mast on a hilltop,
Like a pole upon a mountain.
18Truly, the LORD is waiting to show you grace,
Truly, He will arise to pardon you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Happy are all who wait for Him.
19Indeed, O people in Zion, dwellers of Jerusalem, you shall not have cause to weep. He will grant you His favor at the sound of your cry; He will respond as soon as He hears it. 20My Lord will provide for you meager bread and scant water. Then your Guide will no more d-be ignored,-d but your eyes will watch your Guide; 21and, whenever you deviate to the right or to the left, your ears will heed the command from behind you: “This is the road; follow it!” 22And you will treat as unclean the silver overlay of your images and the golden plating of your idols. You will casth them away like a menstruous woman. “Out!” you will call to them.
23So rain shall be provided for the seed with which you sow the ground, and the bread that the ground brings forth shall be rich and fat. Your livestock, in that day, shall graze in broad pastures; 24as for the cattle and the asses that till the soil, they shall partake of salted fodder that has been winnowed with shovel and fan.
25And on every high mountain and on every lofty hill, there shall appear brooks and watercourses—on a day of heavy slaughter, when towers topple. 26And the light of the moon shall become like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall become sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, when the LORD binds up
