Isaiah 30
1 “Ah, rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan that is not mine, making an alliance that is not by my spirit, piling sin upon sin!
2 They go down to Egypt without asking me, seeking strength from Pharaoh’s protection and shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will bring you shame, and shelter in Egypt’s shadow will bring you disgrace.
4 For his officials are in Zoan, and his messengers have reached Hanes.
5 Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who are no help to them—no help or benefit, only shame and disgrace.”
6 A message about the animals of the Negev: Through a land of distress and hardship, where the lioness and lion roam, and the viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on camels’ humps, to a people who are no help.
7 Egypt’s help is empty and useless. So I have called her “Rahab Who Sits Still.”
8 Now go, write this on a tablet before them and record it in a book, so it may stand for the days to come, forever and ever.
9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the LORD’s instruction.
10 They say to the seers, “Do not see!” and to the visionaries, “Do not tell us what is right. Tell us pleasant things; give us visions of illusions.
11 Get out of the way; turn aside from the path. Make the Holy One of Israel stop confronting us!”
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Since you have rejected this word and trusted in oppression and deceit, relying on them,
13 this guilt will become for you like a crack in a high wall, bulging out and ready to collapse, which suddenly, in an instant, breaks apart.
14 It will shatter like a potter’s jar, smashed without mercy. Among its pieces, no shard will be found large enough to carry fire from the hearth or scoop water from a cistern.”
15 For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In turning back and being still you will be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength.” But you were unwilling.
16 You said, “No! We will flee on horses”—so flee you shall. “We will ride swift steeds”—so your pursuers will be swift.
17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five, you will all flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
18 So the LORD waits to show you compassion; he rises to have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely show you compassion when you cry for help; as soon as he hears, he will answer.
20 The Lord gave you bread of hardship and water of distress, but your teachers will no longer hide themselves. Your eyes will see your teachers.
21 Your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
22 You will treat as impure your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered images. You will scatter them like a filthy rag and say to them, “Get out!”
23 Then he will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the produce of the land will be rich and nourishing. On that day your livestock will graze in broad pastures.
24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat seasoned fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
25 On every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of flowing water, on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 The moonlight will be like sunlight, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day when the LORD binds up his people’s fracture and heals the wound from his blow.
27 Look, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with anger and heavy with smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing torrent reaching up to the neck, to sift the nations in the sieve of destruction; a misleading bridle is on the jaws of the peoples.
29 You will sing as on the night of a holy festival, and your hearts will rejoice as when people walk with flutes on their way to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30 The LORD will make his majestic voice heard and show his arm coming down with furious anger and a devouring flame of fire, with storm, cloudburst, and hailstones.
31 At the voice of the LORD, Assyria will be terrified; he will strike her with his rod.
32 Every stroke of the appointed rod that the LORD lays on her will come with tambourines and harps; he will fight against them in battles with his arm raised.
33 For Topheth has long been prepared; it too is ready for the king—a deep, wide pit, with fire and plenty of wood in its blaze. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of sulfur, sets it alight.
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