1-4. Doom, Ariel, Ariel,the city where David set camp!Let the years add up,let the festivals run their cycles,But I’m not letting up on Jerusalem.The moaning and groaning will continue.Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.Like David, I’ll set up camp against you.I’ll set siege, build towers,bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.Driven into the ground, you’ll speak,you’ll mumble words from the dirt—Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost.Your speech will whisper from the dust.
5-8. But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust,the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff.Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere,a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise,backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel,all who trouble and hassle and torment her,will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare.Like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating steakand wakes up hungry as ever,Like a thirsty woman dreaming she’s drinking iced teaand wakes up thirsty as ever,So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zionwill wake up and find they haven’t shot an arrow,haven’t killed a single soul.
9-10. Drug yourselves so you feel nothing.Blind yourselves so you see nothing.Get drunk, but not on wine.Black out, but not from whiskey.For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep,put the discerning prophets to sleep,put the farsighted seers to sleep.
11-12. What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, “Read this,” she’ll say, “I can’t. The envelope is sealed.” And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, “Read this,” he’ll say, “I can’t read.”
13-14. The Master said:“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,but their hearts aren’t in it.Because they act like they’re worshiping mebut don’t mean it,I’m going to step in and shock them awake,astonish them, stand them on their ears.The wise ones who had it all figured outwill be exposed as fools.The smart people who thought they knew everythingwill turn out to know nothing.”
15-16. Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.You shut God out and work behind the scenes,Plotting the future as if you knew everything,acting mysterious, never showing your hand.You have everything backward!You treat the potter as a lump of clay.Does a book say to its author,“He didn’t write a word of me”?Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,“She had nothing to do with this”?