The Fate of Jerusalem
1 God's altar, Jerusalem itself, is doomed! The city where David camped is doomed! Let another year or two come and go, with its feasts and festivals, 2 and then God will bring disaster on the city that is called “God's altar.” There will be weeping and wailing, and the whole city will be like an altar covered with blood. 3 God will attack the city, surround it, and besiege it. 4 Jerusalem will be like a ghost struggling to speak from under the ground, a muffled voice coming from the dust.
5 Jerusalem, all the foreigners who attack you will be blown away like dust, and their terrifying armies will fly away like straw. Suddenly and unexpectedly 6 the Lord Almighty will rescue you with violent thunderstorms and earthquakes. He will send windstorms and raging fire; 7 then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God's altar, all their weapons and equipment—everything—will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night. 8 All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.
Disregarded Warnings
9 Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop! 10 The Lord has made you drowsy, ready to fall into a deep sleep. The prophets should be the eyes of the people, but God has blindfolded them. 11 The meaning of every prophetic vision will be hidden from you; it will be like a sealed scroll. If you take it to someone who knows how to read and ask him to read it to you, he will say he can't because it is sealed. 12 If you give it to someone who can't read and ask him to read it to you, he will answer that he doesn't know how.
13 The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. 14 So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.”
Hope for the Future
15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing. 16 They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, “You didn't make me”? Or can it say, “You don't know what you are doing”?
17 As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.
18 When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see. 19 Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the Lord, the holy God of Israel, gives. 20 It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed. 21 God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest people from getting justice.
22 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame. 23 When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the holy God of Israel. You will honor me and stand in awe of me. 24 Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught.”
1 Ah altar, altar of the citie that Dauid dwelt in: adde yere vnto yere: let them kill lambs. 2 But I wil bring the altar into distresse, and there shalbe heauines and sorowe, and it shall be vnto me like an altar. 3 And I wil besiege thee as a circle, and fight against thee on a mount, and will cast vp ramparts against thee. 4 So shalt thou be humbled, and shalt speake out of the ground, and thy speach shalbe as out of the dust: thy voyce also shall be out of the ground like him that hath a spirite of diuination, and thy talking shall whisper out of the dust. 5 Moreouer, the multitude of thy strangers shalbe like small dust, and the multitude of strong men shalbe as chaffe that passeth away, and it shall be in a moment, euen suddenly. 6 Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hostes with thunder, and shaking, and a great noyse, a whirlewinde, and a tempest, and a flame of a deuouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against the altar, shalbe as a dreame or vision by night: euen all they that make the warre against it, and strong holdes against it, and lay siege vnto it. 8 And it shalbe like as an hungry man dreameth, and beholde, he eateth: and when he awaketh, his soule is emptie: or like as a thirsty man dreameth, and loe, he is drinking, and when he awaketh, beholde, he is faint, and his soule longeth: so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion. 9 Stay your selues, and wonder: they are blinde, and make you blinde: they are drunken but not with wine: they stagger, but not by strong drinke. 10 For the Lord hath couered you with a spirite of slumber, and hath shut vp your eyes: the Prophets, and your chiefe Seers hath he couered. 11 And the vision of them all is become vnto you, as the wordes of a booke that is sealed vp, which they deliuer to one that can reade, saying, Reade this, I pray thee. Then shall he say, I can not: for it is sealed. 12 And the booke is giuen vnto him that can not reade, saying, Reade this, I pray thee. And he shall say, I can not reade. 13 Therefore the Lord sayd, Because this people come neere vnto me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but haue remooued their heart farre from me, and their feare toward me was taught by the precept of men, 14 Therefore behold, I wil againe doe a marueilous worke in this people, euen a marueilous worke, and a wonder: for the wisdome of their wise men shall perish, and the vnderstanding of their prudent men shalbe hid. 15 Wo vnto them that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord: for their workes are in darkenes, and they say, Who seeth vs? and who knoweth vs? 16 Your turning of deuises shall it not be esteemed as the potters clay? for shall the worke say of him that made it, Hee made me not? or the thing formed, say of him that facioned it, He had none vnderstanding? 17 Is it not yet but a litle while, and Lebanon shall be turned into Carmel? and Carmel shall be counted as a forest? 18 And in that day shall the deafe heare the wordes of the booke, and the eyes of the blinde shall see out of obscuritie, and out of darkenesse. 19 The meeke in the Lord shall receiue ioye againe, and the poore men shall reioyce in the holy one of Israel. 20 For the cruel man shall cease, and the scornefull shalbe consumed: and all that hasted to iniquitie, shalbe cut off: 21 Which made a man to sinne in ye worde, and tooke him in a snare: which reproued them in the gate, and made the iust to fall without cause. 22 Therefore thus sayth the Lord vnto the house of Iaakob, euen hee that redeemed Abraham, Iaakob shall not now be confounded, neither now shall his face be pale. 23 But when he seeth his children, the worke of mine hands, in the mids of him, they shall sanctifie my Name, and sanctifie the holy one of Iaakob, and shall feare the God of Israel. 24 Then they that erred in spirit, shall haue vnderstanding, and they that murmured, shall learne doctrine.