New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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1 Alas for Ariel! Ariel,
the city where David encamped.
Add year to year,
let the pilgrim-feasts run their round,
2 and I will bring Ariel to sore straits,
when there shall be moaning and lamentation.
I will make her my Ariel indeed, my fiery altar.
3 I will throw my army round you like a wall;
I will set a ring of outposts all round you
and erect siege-works against you.
4 You shall be brought low, you will speak out of the ground
and your words will issue from the earth;
your voice will come like a ghost's from the ground,
and your words will squeak out of the earth.
5 Yet the horde of your enemies shall crumble into dust,
the horde of ruthless foes shall fly like chaff.
Then suddenly, all in an instant,
6 punishment shall come from the Lord of Hosts
with thunder and earthquake and a great noise,
with storm and tempest and a flame of devouring fire;
7 and the horde of all the nations warring against Ariel,
-- --
Assyria and Judah
all their baggage-trains and siege-works, note
and all her oppressors themselves,
shall fade as a dream, a vision of the night.
8 Like a starving man who dreams
and thinks that he is eating,
but wakes up to find himself empty,
or a thirsty man who dreams
and thinks that he is drinking,
but wakes up to find himself thirsty and dry,
so shall the horde of all the nations be
that war against Mount Zion.
9 Loiter and be dazed, enjoy yourselves and be blinded,
be drunk but not with wine, reel but not with strong drink;
10 for the Lord has poured upon you a spirit of deep stupor;
he has closed your eyes, the prophets,
and muffled your heads, the seers.
11 All prophetic vision has become for you like a sealed book. Give such
a book to one who can read and say, ‘Come, read this’; he will answer,
‘I cannot’, because it is sealed.
12 Give it to one who cannot read and say,
‘Come, read this’; he will answer, ‘I cannot read.’
13 Then the Lord said:
Because this people approach me with their mouths
and honour me with their lips
while their hearts are far from me,
and their religion is but a precept of men, learnt by rote,
14 therefore I will yet again shock this people,
adding shock to shock:
the wisdom of their wise men shall vanish
and the discernment of the discerning shall be lost.
15 Shame upon those who seek to hide their purpose
too deep for the Lord to see,
and who, when their deeds are done in the dark,
say, ‘Who sees us? Who knows of us?’
16 How you turn things upside down,
as if the potter ranked no higher than the clay!
Shall the thing made say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’?
Shall the pot say of the potter, ‘He has no skill’?
17 The time is but short
before Lebanon goes back to grassland
and the grassland is no better than scrub.
-- --
Assyria and Judah
18 On that day deaf men shall hear
when a book is read,
and the eyes of the blind shall see
out of impenetrable darkness.
19 The lowly shall once again rejoice in the Lord,
and the poorest of men exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless shall be no more, the arrogant shall cease to be;
those who are quick to see mischief,
21 those who charge others with a sin
or lay traps for him who brings the wrongdoer into court
or by falsehood deny justice to the righteous—
all these shall be exterminated.
22 Therefore these are the words of the Lord the God of the house of
Jacob, the God who ransomed Abraham:
This is no time for Jacob to be shamed,
no time for his face to grow pale;
23 for his descendants will hallow my name
when they see note what I have done in their nation.
They will hallow the Holy One of Jacob
and hold the God of Israel in awe;
24 those whose minds are confused will gain understanding,
and the obstinate will receive instruction.
New English [1970], THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE) [word count] [B16000].
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