9. Be surprised and amazed.Blind yourselves so that you cannot see.Become drunk, but not from wine.Trip and fall, but not from beer.
10. The Lord has made you go into a deep sleep.He has closed your eyes. (The prophets are your eyes.)He has covered your heads. (The seers are your heads.)
11. This vision is like the words of a book that is closed and sealed. You may give the book to someone who can read and tell that person to read it. But he will say, “I can’t read the book, because it is sealed.”
12. Or you may give the book to someone who cannot read and tell him to read it. But he will say, “I don’t know how to read.”
13. The Lord says:“These people worship me with their mouths,and honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship is based onnothing but human rules.
14. So I will continue to amaze these peopleby doing more and more miracles.Their wise men will lose their wisdom;their wise men will not be able to understand.”
15. How terrible it will be for those who tryto hide things from the Lordand who do their work in darkness.They think no one will see them or know what they do.
16. You are confused.You think the clay is equal to the potter.You think that an object can tell the one who made it,“You didn’t make me.”This is like a pot telling its maker,“You don’t know anything.”
17. In a very short time, Lebanon will become rich farmland,and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.