¹Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the festivals go around.

²And I will press hard on Ariel, and there will be grief and lamentation, and she will be to me like Ariel.

³I will encamp like a circle against you, and I will lay siege against you with a palisade, and I will raise siege-works against you.

⁴And you will sink low; from the land you will speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice will be like a ghost's from the land, and from the dust your speech will peep.

⁵The horde of your strangers will be like fine dust, and the horde of the ruthless like chaff passing by; and it will happen in a moment, suddenly.

⁶From Yahweh of hosts you will be visited with thunder and with quaking and a great noise, storm-wind and tempest, and a flame of devouring fire.

⁷It will be like a dream, a vision of the night: the horde of all the nations who wage war against Ariel, and all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and those who press hard on her.

⁸It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and look, he is eating, and he wakes and his being is empty; and as when a thirsty man dreams, and look, he is drinking, and he wakes and look, he is faint, and his being is seeking greedily — so will be the horde of all the nations who wage war against the mountain of Zion.

⁹Linger and be astounded; look about in dismay and stare! They are drunk, but not with wine; they totter, but not from strong drink.

¹⁰For Yahweh has poured out over you a spirit of deep sleep and has shut your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a sealed scroll, which people give to one who knows writing, saying, 'Read this aloud, please,' and he says, 'I cannot, for it is sealed.'

¹²And the scroll is given to one who does not know writing, saying, 'Read this aloud, please,' and he says, 'I do not know writing.'

¹³And the Lord said: Because this people has drawn near with its mouth and has honored me with its lips, but it has sent its heart far from me, and their fear of me has been a commandment of men, taught,

¹⁴Therefore, look, I will again do a wonder with this people, wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of its wise ones will perish, and the understanding of its discerning ones will hide itself.

¹⁵Ah, those who make it deep, to hide counsel from Yahweh, whose deeds are in a dark place, and who say, 'Who sees us? Who knows us?'

¹⁶Oh, your perversity! Shall the potter be reckoned like clay, that a thing made should say of its maker, 'He did not make me,' and the pottery should say of its potter, 'He does not understand'?

¹⁷Is it not yet a little, a mere trifle, and Lebanon will turn into garden-land, and the garden-land will be reckoned as forest?

¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and out of gloom and out of darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹The humble will add to their gladness in Yahweh, and the needy among humankind will rejoice in the holy one of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless has ceased, and the mocker is finished, and all who keep watch for wickedness are cut off,

²¹those who bring a person into guilt with a word, and lay a trap for the one who judges in the gate, and turn aside the righteous with emptiness.

²²Therefore this is what Yahweh, who ransomed Abraham, says to the house of Jacob: Jacob will not be ashamed now, and his face will not turn pale now.

²³For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will set apart my name; they will set apart the holy one of Jacob, and they will hold the God of Israel in awe.

²⁴Those who go astray in breath will know understanding, and the murmurers will learn instruction.