Be stunned and amazed,(A)
    blind yourselves and be sightless;(B)
be drunk,(C) but not from wine,(D)
    stagger,(E) but not from beer.
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:(F)
    He has sealed your eyes(G) (the prophets);(H)
    he has covered your heads (the seers).(I)

11 For you this whole vision(J) is nothing but words sealed(K) in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

13 The Lord says:

“These people(L) come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,(M)
    but their hearts are far from me.(N)
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.[a](O)
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
    with wonder upon wonder;(P)
the wisdom of the wise(Q) will perish,
    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.(R)
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide(S) their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    “Who sees us?(T) Who will know?”(U)
16 You turn things upside down,
    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!(V)
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed(W) it,
    “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,(X)
    “You know nothing”?(Y)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 29:13 Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; / their teachings are merely human rules

Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

10 For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

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