1. “What sorrow awaits Ariel, the City of David.Year after year you celebrate your feasts.
2. Yet I will bring disaster upon you,and there will be much weeping and sorrow.For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—an altar covered with blood.
3. I will be your enemy,surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.I will build siege towersand destroy it.
4. Then deep from the earth you will speak;from low in the dust your words will come.Your voice will whisper from the groundlike a ghost conjured up from the grave.
5. “But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushedlike the finest of dust.Your many attackers will be driven awaylike chaff before the wind.Suddenly, in an instant,
6. I, the lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for youwith thunder and earthquake and great noise,with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
7. All the nations fighting against Jerusalemwill vanish like a dream!Those who are attacking her wallswill vanish like a vision in the night.
8. A hungry person dreams of eatingbut wakes up still hungry.A thirsty person dreams of drinkingbut is still faint from thirst when morning comes.So it will be with your enemies,with those who attack Mount Zion.”
9. Are you amazed and incredulous?Don’t you believe it?Then go ahead and be blind.You are stupid, but not from wine!You stagger, but not from liquor!
10. For the lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
11. All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”