Isaiah 29:1–10

¹Woe to you, O Ariel,^a

the city of Ariel where David camped!

Year upon year

let your festivals recur.

²And I will constrain Ariel,

and there will be mourning and lamentation;

she will be like an altar hearth^b before Me.

³I will camp in a circle around you;

I will besiege you with towers

and set up siege works against you.

⁴You will be brought low,

you will speak from the ground,

and out of the dust

your words will be muffled.

Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground;

your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust,

the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff.

Then suddenly, in an instant,

⁶you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts

with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,

with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.

⁷All the many nations

going out to battle against Ariel—

even all who war against her,

laying siege and attacking her—

will be like a dream,

like a vision in the night,

⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating,

then awakens still hungry;

as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking,

then awakens faint and parched.

So will it be for all the many nations

who go to battle against Mount Zion.

⁹Stop and be astonished;

blind yourselves and be sightless;

be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not from strong drink.

¹⁰For the LORD has poured out on you

a spirit of deep sleep.

He has shut your eyes, O prophets;

He has covered your heads, O seers.