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29. Woe to David's City

¹ Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
   the city where David settled!
Add year to year
   and let your cycle of festivals go on.
² Yet I will besiege Ariel;
   she will mourn and lament,
   she will be to me like an altar hearth. The Hebrew for altar hearth sounds like the Hebrew for Ariel.
³ I will encamp against you on all sides;
   I will encircle you with towers
   and set up my siege works against you.
⁴ Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
   your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
   out of the dust your speech will whisper.

    ⁵ But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
   the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
    ⁶ the LORD Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
   with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
⁷ Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
   that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
   with a vision in the night—
⁸ as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
   but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
   but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
   that fight against Mount Zion.

    ⁹ Be stunned and amazed,
   blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
   stagger, but not from beer.
¹⁰ The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep:
   He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
   he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹ For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” ¹² Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³ The Lord says:

   “These people come near to me with their mouth
   and honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
   is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; / their teachings are merely human rules
¹⁴ Therefore once more I will astound these people
   with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
   the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
   to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
   “Who sees us? Who will know?”
¹⁶ You turn things upside down,
   as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
   “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
   “You know nothing”?

    ¹⁷ In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
   and the fertile field seem like a forest?
¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
   and out of gloom and darkness
   the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹ Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD;
   the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ The ruthless will vanish,
   the mockers will disappear,
   and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
²¹ those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
   who ensnare the defender in court
   and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

²² Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:

   “No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
   no longer will their faces grow pale.
²³ When they see among them their children,
   the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
   they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
   and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
²⁴ Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
   those who complain will accept instruction.”

23. Because, when he shall see his children. The particle כי (kī) is here used in its natural and original meaning of for or because. The Prophet assigns the reason why the disgrace of Israel shall be taken away. It is, because he will have children, and those who were thought to have perished will be still alive.

The work of my hands in the midst of him. By giving them this name, he intended, I have no doubt, to describe the astonishing work of redemption; for those whom God adopts to be his children, and receives into fellowship with himself, are made by him, as it were, new men, agreeably to that saying,

“And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18.)

In that passage the Psalmist describes in a similar manner the renewal of the Church; for this description, as we have repeatedly stated on former occasions, does not relate to the general creation which extends to all, but leads us to acknowledge his power, that we may not judge of the salvation of the Church by the present appearances of things. And here we ought to observe various contrasts; first, between the ruinous condition of the Church and her surpassing beauty, between her shame and her glory; secondly, between the people of God and other nations; thirdly, between “the works of God’s hands” and the works of men, (for by God’s hand alone can the Church be restored;) and fourthly, between her flourishing condition and the ruinous and desolate state to which she had formerly been reduced. By the phrase, “in the midst of him,” is meant a perfect restoration, by which the people shall be united and joined together in such a manner as to occupy not only the extremities, but the very heart and the chief places of the country.

They shall hallow my name. Last of all, he points out the end of redemption. We were all created, that the goodness of God might be celebrated among us. But as the greater part of mankind have revolted from their original condition, God hath chosen a Church in which his praises should resound and dwell, as the Psalmist says, “Praise waiteth for thee in Zion.” (Psalm 65:1.) Now, since many even of the flock have degenerated, the Prophet assigns this office to believers, whom God had miraculously preserved.

They shall fear the God of Israel. Because hypocrites, as we have formerly seen, honor God with their lips, but are far removed from him in their heart, after speaking of the ascription of praise, he next mentions fear; thus meaning that our praises are reckoned of no value, unless we honestly and sincerely obey God, and unless our whole life testify that we do not hypocritically utter the name of God.