¶ Woe be unto thee O Ariel, thou city that David wan. Take ye yet some years, and let some feasts yet pass over:
then shall Ariel be besieged, so that she shall be heavy and sorrowful, and shall be unto me even as a lion.
For I will lay siege to thee round about, and keep thee in with towers, and grave up dikes against thee.
And thou shalt be brought low, and speak out of the earth, and thy words shall go humbly out of the ground.
Thy voice shall come out of the earth, like the voice of a witch, and thy talking shall groan out of the mire. For the multitude of thine enemies shall be like meal dust. And the number of Tyrants shall be as the dust that the wind taketh away suddenly.
Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of Hosts with thunder, earthquake, and with a great crack, with the whirl wind, tempest, and with the flame of a consuming fire.
But now the multitude of all the people, that went out against Ariel: the whole host, the strongholds, and siege: is like a dream which appeareth in the night.
It is like as when an hungry man dreameth that he is eating, and when he awaketh, he hath nothing: like as when a thirsty man dreameth that he is drinking, and when he awaketh he is faint, and his soul unpatient. So is the multitude of all people that muster themselves against the hill of Sion.
¶ But ye shall be at your wits end, ye shall be abashed: ye shall stagger, and reel to and fro. Ye shall be drunken, but not of wine. Ye shall fall, but not thorow drunkenness:
For the LORD shall give you an hard sleeping spirit, and hold down your eyes: namely your Prophets and heads which should see, them shall he cover.
And all visions shall be unto you, as the words that stond in a sealed letter, when one offereth it to a man that is learned, and sayeth: read us this letter. Then he answereth: I can not read it, for it is shut.
But if it be given to one that is not learned, or say unto him: read this letter: Then sayeth he I can not read.
Therefore thus sayeth the Lord: For so much as this people draweth nye me with their mouth, and praiseth me highly with their lips, where as their heart nevertheless is far from me, and the fear which they owe unto me, that turn they to men's laws and doctrines,
therefore will I also shew unto this people a marvelous, terrible, and great thing (Namely this:) I will destroy the wisdom of their wise, and the understanding of their learned men shall perish.
Woe be unto them that seek so deep, to hide their imagination before the LORD, which rehearse their counsels in the darkness, and say: who seeth us, or who knoweth us?
Which imagination of yours is even as when the potter's clay taketh advisement, as though the work might say to the workmaster: make me not, or as when an earthen vessel sayeth of the potter: he understandeth not.
¶ See ye not that it is hard by, that Libanus shall be turned in to Charmel, and that Charmel shall be taken as a wood?
Then shall deaf men understand the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see without any cloud or darkness.
The oppressed shall hold a merry feast in the LORD, and the poor people shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel.
Then shall the furious people cease, and the mockers shall be put away, and all they that do wrong shall be plucked out,
such as labour to draw men unto sin: and that deceive him, which reproveth them in the gate, and such as turn good persons to vanity.
And therefore the LORD (even the defender of Abraham) sayeth thus unto the house of Iacob: Now shall not Iacob be ashamed, nor his face confounded,
when he seeth among his children (whom my hands have made) such as hallow my name among them: that they may sanctify the holy one of Iacob, and fear the God of Israel.
and that they which afore time were of an erroneous spirit, have now understanding, and that such as before could not speak, are now learned in my law.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.