The Futility of Reliance on Egypt
30 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
who carry out a plan but not mine;
who make an alliance but against my will,
adding sin to sin;(A)
2 who set out to go down to Egypt
without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.(B)
3 Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.(C)
4 For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,(D)
5 everyone comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
only shame and disgrace.(E)
6 An oracle concerning the animals of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and distress,
of lioness and roaring[a] lion,
of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a people that cannot profit them.(F)
7 For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her,
“Rahab who sits still.”[b](G)
A Rebellious People
8 Go now, write it before them on a tablet,
and inscribe it on a scroll,
so that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.(H)
9 For they are a rebellious people,
faithless children,
children who will not hear
the instruction of the Lord;(I)
10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things;
prophesy illusions;(J)
11 leave the way; turn aside from the path;
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”(K)
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word
and put your trust in oppression and deceit
and rely on them,(L)
13 therefore this iniquity shall become for you
like a break in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;(M)
14 its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
for taking fire from the hearth
or dipping water out of the cistern.(N)
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
But you refused(O)16 and said,
‘No! We will flee upon horses’—
therefore you shall flee!
and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’—
therefore your pursuers shall be swift!(P)
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee
until you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.(Q)
God’s Promise to Zion
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.(R)
19 O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.(S)20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.(T)21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”(U)22 Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like impure things; you will say to them, “Away with you!”(V)
23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures,(W)24 and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage that has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.(X)
Judgment on Assyria
27 See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
his anger burning and his burden heavy;[c]
his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;(Y)
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck—
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.(Z)
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.(AA)30 And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones.(AB)31 The Assyrian will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod.(AC)32 And every stroke of the staff of punishment[d] that the Lord lays upon him will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres with dancing;[e] with brandished arm he will fight with him.(AD)33 For his burning place[f] has long been prepared, also for the king;[g] its pyre is made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.(AE)
Footnotes
- 30.6Cn: Heb from them
- 30.7Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 30.27Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 30.32Heb mss Syr: MT foundation
- 30.32Cn: Heb and with battles
- 30.33Or Topheth
- 30.33Or Molech
Cross references
- 30.1 : v 9; Isa 8.11, 12; 29.15
- 30.2 : Num 27.21; Josh 9.14; 1 Kings 22.7; Isa 31.1; Jer 21.2
- 30.3 : Isa 20.5; Jer 37.3, 5
- 30.4 : Isa 19.11
- 30.5 : v 7; Jer 2.36
- 30.6 : Isa 8.22; 14.29; 15.7; 46.1, 2
- 30.7 : v 15; Jer 37.7
- 30.8 : Isa 8.1; Hab 2.2
- 30.9 : v 1; Isa 24.5; 28.15
- 30.10 : 1 Kings 22.8, 13; Isa 5.20; 29.10
- 30.11 : Job 21.14
- 30.12 : Isa 5.24; 59.13
- 30.13 : Ps 62.3; Isa 26.21; 29.5
- 30.14 : Ps 2.9; Jer 19.10, 11
- 30.15 : Isa 7.4; 28.12; 32.17
- 30.16 : Isa 31.1, 3
- 30.17 : Lev 26.8; Deut 28.25; 32.30; Josh 23.10
- 30.18 : Isa 5.16; 33.5; 42.14
- 30.19 : Isa 60.20; 61.1–3; 65.9; Mt 7.7–11
- 30.20 : 1 Kings 22.27; Ps 74.9; 80.5; Am 8.11
- 30.21 : Prov 3.6; Isa 29.24; 35.8, 9
- 30.22 : Isa 2.20; 31.7; 46.6; Mt 4.10
- 30.23 : Ps 65.9–13; Isa 32.20; 65.21, 22
- 30.26 : Isa 1.6; 60.19, 20; 61.1; Jer 33.6; Rev 21.23; 22.5
- 30.27 : Isa 10.5, 13, 17; 59.19; 66.15
- 30.28 : Isa 8.8; 11.4; 37.29; 2 Thess 2.8
- 30.29 : Ps 42.4; Isa 2.3; 17.10
- 30.30 : Isa 28.2; 32.19
- 30.31 : Isa 31.8
- 30.32 : Isa 10.24; Jer 31.4; Ezek 32.10
- 30.33 : vv 27, 28; Isa 34.9; Jer 7.31; 19.6