Rebuke for Seeking Egypt's Help; Call to Trust the Lord
Isaiah 30:1-33
1Woe to rebellious sons, utterance of the LORD, who carry out counsel that is not from me and pour a libation that is not of my spirit, in order to add sin upon sin.2They are going down to Egypt without having asked my mouth, in order to strengthen themselves in the security of Pharaoh and to seek refuge in the shadow of Egypt.3Therefore the security of Pharaoh will become your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt will become your disgrace.4For his officials were in Zoan, and his messengers reached Hanes.5All have brought shame upon a people that cannot profit them; there is no help and no gain, only shame and reproach.6An oracle concerning the animals of the Negeb: through a land of distress and anguish, of lion and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of donkeys and on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit.7Egypt's help is vanity and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.8Now go, write it on a tablet before them and inscribe it in a scroll, that it may be for a later day as a witness forever.9For it is a rebellious people, deceptive sons, sons who are not willing to hear the instruction of the LORD.10They say to the seers, Do not see, and to the visionaries, Do not give us true visions; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions.11Turn aside from the way, leave the path, remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word and have trusted in oppression and deceit and have relied on them.13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a falling breach, bulging in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.14Its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel, smashed so that not a fragment is found for taking fire from the hearth or drawing water from the cistern.15For 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 were not willing.16You said, No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore you shall flee; and, We will ride upon swift steeds; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.17A 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 banner on a hill.18Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all who wait for him.19For a people shall dwell in Zion, in 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.20Though the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your Teacher will no longer be hidden, and your eyes shall see your Teacher.21And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.22Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images; you will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them, Be gone.23And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your livestock will graze in broad pastures.24And the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder that has been winnowed with shovel and fork.25On every high mountain and on every lofty hill there will be brooks running with water, on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.26Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, on the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds he has inflicted.27Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.28His 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.29You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with flute to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.30And 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.31For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terror-stricken; with his rod he will strike.32And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays upon him will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres; and in battles of brandished weapons he will fight them.33For Topheth has been arranged from previously; indeed it is prepared for the king, its pile made deep and wide with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD like a torrent of brimstone kindles it.