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⁹ Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor,
   blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not from wine;
   stagger, but not from strong drink!
¹⁰ For the Lord has poured out upon you
   a spirit of deep sleep;
he has closed your eyes, you prophets,
   and covered your heads, you seers.

11 The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, ‘Read this’, they say, ‘We cannot, for it is sealed.’ ¹²And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, ‘Read this’, they say, ‘We cannot read.’

¹³ The Lord said:
Because these people draw near with their mouths
   and honour me with their lips,
   while their hearts are far from me,
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;
¹⁴ so I will again do
   amazing things with this people,
   shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
   and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.

Hope for the Future

¹⁷ Shall not Lebanon in a very little while
   become a fruitful field,
   and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?
¹⁸ On that day the deaf shall hear
   the words of a scroll,
and out of their gloom and darkness
   the eyes of the blind shall see.
¹⁹ The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
   and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ For the tyrant shall be no more,
   and the scoffer shall cease to be;
   all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—
²¹ those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit,
   who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate,
   and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.