Isaiah 29 :: New International Version (NIV)

Woe to David’s City

Isa 29:1Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.

Isa 29:2Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.[fn]

Isa 29:3I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.

Isa 29:4Brought 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.

Isa 29:5

Isa 29:5But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

Isa 29:6

Isa 29:6the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

Isa 29:7

Isa 29:7Then 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—

Isa 29:8

Isa 29:8as 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.

Isa 29:9

Isa 29:9Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.

Isa 29:10

Isa 29:10The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).

Isa 29:11

Isa 29:11For 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.”

Isa 29:12

Isa 29:12Or 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.”

Isa 29:13

Isa 29:13The 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.[fn]

Isa 29:14

Isa 29:14Therefore 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.”

Isa 29:15

Isa 29:15Woe 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?”

Isa 29:16

Isa 29:16You 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”?

Isa 29:17

Isa 29:17In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?

Isa 29:18

Isa 29:18In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

Isa 29:19

Isa 29:19Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Isa 29:20

Isa 29:20The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—

Isa 29:21

Isa 29:21those 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.

Isa 29:22

Isa 29:22Therefore 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.

Isa 29:23

Isa 29:23When 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.

Isa 29:24

Isa 29:24Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(29:2)

The Hebrew for altar hearth sounds like the Hebrew for Ariel.

(29:13)

Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; / their teachings are merely human rules

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

Isaiah Chapter 29 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Isaiah 29 :: New International Version (NIV)

Woe to David’s City

NIV Footnotes

Isaiah Chapter 29 — Additional Translations:

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?