11. To you all these visions will be like words in a book that is closed and sealed. You give this book to someone who can read, saying, “Please read this.”He answers, “I can’t read it. It’s sealed.”
12. Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.”He answers, “I can’t read.”
13. The Lord says,“These people worship me with their mouthsand honor me with their lips.But their hearts are far from me,and their worship of me is ⌊based on⌋ rules made by humans.
14. That is why I am going to do something completely amazingfor these people once again.The wisdom of their wise people will disappear.The intelligence of their intelligent people will be hidden.”
15. How horrible it will be for thosewho try to hide their plans from the Lord.Their deeds are done in the dark,and they say, “No one can see us”and “No one can recognize us.”
16. You turn things upside down!Is the potter no better than his clay?Can something that has been madesay about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?Can a piece of potterysay about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
17. In a very short time Lebanon will be turned into a fertile fieldand the fertile field will be considered a forest.
18. When that day comes, the deaf will hear the words written in the book.The blind will see out of their gloom and darkness.
19. Humble people again will find joy in the Lord.The poorest of people will find joy in the Holy One of Israel.
20. Tyrants will be gone.Mockers will be finished.All who look for ways to do wrong will come to an end:
21. those who make people sin with words,those who lay traps for judges,those who, without any reason, deny justiceto people who are in the right.
22. This is what the Lord, who saved Abraham, says about the descendants of Jacob:Jacob will no longer be ashamed.Jacob’s face will no longer turn pale.