1 ARST This is a message from Yahweh: Terrible things will happen to Jerusalem, the city where King David lived. You people continue to celebrate your festivals each year. BSB BSB: Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.
2 ARST But I will cause you to experience a great disaster, and when that happens, people will weep and lament very much. Your city will become like an altar to me where people are burned as sacrifices. BSB BSB: And I will constrain Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an altar hearth before Me.
3 ARST I will cause your enemies to come and camp all around your city; they will surround it by building towers and putting in place other things with which to attack you. BSB BSB: I will camp in a circle around you; I will besiege you with towers and set up siege works against you.
4 ARST Then you will talk as though you were buried deep in the ground; it will sound like someone whispering from under the ground, like a ghost speaking from a grave. BSB BSB: You 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.
5 ARST But suddenly your enemies will be blown away like dust; their armies will disappear like chaff that is blown away by the wind. It will happen very suddenly: BSB BSB: But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
6 ARST Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, will come to help you with thunder and an earthquake and a very loud noise, with a strong wind and a big storm and a fire that will burn up everything. BSB BSB: you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.
7 ARST Then the armies of all the nations that will be attacking Jerusalem will quickly disappear like a dream in the night. Those who will be attacking Jerusalem will suddenly vanish. BSB BSB: All 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,
8 ARST People who are asleep dream about eating food, but when they wake up, they are still hungry. People who are thirsty dream about drinking something, but when they wake up they are still thirsty. It will be like that when your enemies come to attack Mount Zion; they will dream about conquering you, but when they wake up, they will realize that they have not succeeded. BSB BSB: as 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.
10 ARST Because Yahweh has prevented the prophets from understanding and telling you his messages, it is as though he had made you go fast asleep. BSB BSB: For 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.
12 ARST When you give it to others who cannot read, they will say,“We cannot read it because we do not know how to read.” BSB BSB: Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”
13 ARST So the Lord says,“These people pretend to worship me. They say good things to pretend to honor me, but they do not think about what I desire. When they worship me, all they do is recite rules that people have made and that they have memorized. BSB BSB: Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
14 ARST Therefore, again I will do something to amaze these people; I will perform many miracles. And I will show that the people who tell others that they are wise are not really wise, and I will show that the people who tell others that they are intelligent are not really intelligent. BSB BSB: Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”
15 ARST Terrible things will happen to those who try to conceal from me, Yahweh, the evil things that they plan to do; they do those deeds in the darkness and they think,‘Yahweh certainly cannot see us; he cannot know what we are doing!’ BSB BSB: Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
16 ARST They are extremely foolish! They act as though they were the potters and I were the clay! Something that was created should certainly never say to the one who made it,‘You did not make me!’ A jar should never say,‘The potter who made me did not know what he was doing!’” BSB BSB: You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”?
17 ARST Soon the forests in Lebanon will become fertile fields, and abundant crops will grow in those fields, and that will happen very soon. BSB BSB: In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest?
18 ARST At that time, deaf people will be able to hear; they will be able to hear when someone reads from a book; and blind people will be able to see; they will be able to see things when it is gloomy and even when it is dark. BSB BSB: On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
19 ARST Yahweh will enable humble people to be very joyful again. Poor people will rejoice about what the Holy One of Israel has done. BSB BSB: The humble will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 ARST There will be no more people who ridicule others and no more arrogant people. And those who plan to do evil things will be executed. BSB BSB: For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—
21 ARST Those who testify falsely in order to persuade judges to punish innocent people will vanish. Similar things will happen to those who by lying in court persuade the judges to make unjust decisions. BSB BSB: those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
22 ARST That is why Yahweh, who rescued Abraham, says about the people of Israel,“My people will no longer be ashamed; no longer will they show on their faces that they are ashamed. BSB BSB: Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed and no more will his face grow pale.
23 ARST When they see that I have blessed them by giving them many children, and all that I have done for them, they will honor the holy name of the Holy One of Israel, and they will revere me, the God to whom they, the descendants of Jacob, belong. BSB BSB: For when he sees his children around him, the work of My hands, they will honor My name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 ARST When that happens, those who are not able to think well will think clearly, and those who complain about what I am doing will accept what I am teaching them.” BSB BSB: Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.