Condemnation of Scoffers and Redemption of the Humble

Isaiah 29:15–24

Biblical Period

15Ha! Those who would hide their plans
Deep from the Lord!
Who do their work in dark places
And say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?”
16How perverse of you!
Should the potter be accounted as the clay?
Should what is made say of its Maker,
“He did not make me,”
And what is formed say of Him who formed it,
“He did not understand”?
17Surely, in a little while,
Lebanon will be transformed into farm land,
And farm land accounted as mere brush.
18In that day, the deaf shall hear even written words,
And the eyes of the blind shall see
Even in darkness and obscurity.
19Then the humble shall have increasing joy through the Lord,
And the neediest of men shall exult
In the Holy One of Israel.
20For the tyrant shall be no more,
The scoffer shall cease to be;
And those diligent for evil shall be wiped out,
21Who cause men to lose their lawsuits,
Laying a snare for the arbiter at the gate,
And wronging by falsehood
Him who was in the right.

22Assuredly, thus said the Lord to the House of Jacob, Who redeemed Abraham:

No more shall Jacob be shamed,
No longer his face grow pale.

23For when he—that is, his children—behold what My hands have wrought in his midst, they will hallow My name.

Men will hallow the Holy One of Jacob
And stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24And the confused shall acquire insight
And grumblers accept instruction.

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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