Isaiah 29:9-17

9If you confuse yourselves, you will be confused. If you blind yourselves, you will be blinded. You are drunk, but not from wine. You stagger, but not from liquor.

10The Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He will shut your eyes. (Your eyes are the prophets.) He will cover your heads. (Your heads are the seers.)

11To 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.”

12Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.” He answers, “I can’t read.”

13The Lord says, “These people worship me with their mouths and honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is ⌞based on⌟ rules made by humans.

14That is why I am going to do something completely amazing for these people once again. The wisdom of their wise people will disappear. The intelligence of their intelligent people will be hidden.”

15How horrible it will be for those who 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.”

16You turn things upside down! Is the potter no better than his clay? Can something that has been made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Can a piece of pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

17In a very short time Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field will be considered a forest.