The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,
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Doom, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David set camp! Let the years add up, let the festivals run their cycles,
2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.
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But I'm not letting up on Jerusalem. The moaning and groaning will continue. Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.
3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.
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Like David, I'll set up camp against you. I'll set siege, build towers, bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.
4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.
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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 But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.
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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,
6 You will be visited by ADONAI-Tzva'ot with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises, whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.
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a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise, backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,
7 Then, all the nations fighting Ari'el, every one at war with her, the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.
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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.
8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted - it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.
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Like a hungry man dreaming he's eating steak and wakes up hungry as ever, Like a thirsty woman dreaming she's drinking iced tea and wakes up thirsty as ever, So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion will wake up and find they haven't shot an arrow, haven't killed a single soul.
9 If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.
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Drug yourselves so you feel nothing. Blind yourselves so you see nothing. Get drunk, but not on wine. Black out, but not from whiskey.
10 For ADONAI has poured over you a spirit of lethargy; he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets) and covered your heads (that is, the seers).
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For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep, put the discerning prophets to sleep, put the farsighted seers to sleep. You Have Everything Backwards
11 For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, "Please read this," he answers, "I can't, because it's sealed."
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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."
12 If the scroll is given to someone who can't read with the request, "Please read this," he says, "I can't read."
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And if you give it to someone who can't read and tell him, "Read this," he'll say, "I can't read."
13 Then Adonai said: "Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their 'fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin
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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 me but don't mean it,
14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the 'wisdom' of their 'wise ones' vanishes, and the 'discernment' of their 'discerning ones' is hidden away."
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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 out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing."
15 Woe to those who burrow down deep to hide their plans from ADONAI! They work in the dark and say to themselves, "Nobody sees us, nobody knows us."
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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.
16 How you turn things upside down! - Is the potter not better than the clay, Does something made say of its maker, "He didn't make me"? Does the product say of its producer, "He has no discernment"?
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You have everything backwards! 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"?
17 In but a little while the L'vanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.
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And then before you know it, and without you having anything to do with it, Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens, and Mount Carmel reforested.
18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
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At that time the deaf will hear word-for-word what's been written. After a lifetime in the dark, the blind will see.
19 The humble will again rejoice in ADONAI and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra'el,
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The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God, the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.
20 for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished, and all alert to do evil are cut off
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For there'll be no more gangs on the street. Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species. Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean will never be heard of again:
21 those whose words make a man out to be a sinner, those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate, and those who groundlessly deny justice to the one in the right.
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Gone the people who corrupted the courts, gone the people who cheated the poor, gone the people who victimized the innocent.
22 Therefore, here are the words of ADONAI, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya'akov: "Ya'akov will no longer be ashamed, no longer will his face grow pale.
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And finally this, God's Message for the family of Jacob, the same God who redeemed Abraham: "No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame, no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.
23 When his descendants see the work of my hands among them, they will consecrate my name. Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya'akov and stand in awe of the God of Isra'el.
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For he's going to see his children, my personal gift to him - lots of children. And these children will honor me by living holy lives. In holy worship they'll honor the Holy One of Jacob and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those whose spirits stray will come to understand, and those who complain will learn their lesson.
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Those who got off-track will get back on-track, and complainers and whiners learn gratitude."
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.