A reading from the Book of Isaiah.

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped, at year to year, let the feasts run their

ground.

Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like

an Ariel, and I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers,

and I will raise siege works against you. And you will be brought low. From the earth you shall

speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down. Your voice shall come from the ground

like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. But the multitude of your

foreign foes shall be like small dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless, like passing chaff, and in an instant suddenly you will be

visited by the Lord of hosts, with thunder and with earthquake in great noise, with whirlwind and tempest,

and the flame of a devouring fire, and the multitude of all the nations that fight against

Ariel, all that fight against her, and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream,

a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his

hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint,

with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against

Mount Zion. Astourish yourselves and be astonished. Blind yourselves and be blind,

be drunk but not with wine, stagger but not with strong drink, for the Lord has poured out

upon you a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers.

And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.

When men give it to one who can read, saying, read this, he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.

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