Isaiah 31–33

The Egyptians are No Help

31Ah! Those who go down to Egypt for help!

They rely on horses

and trust in chariots because they are many,

and in horsemen because they are very numerous,

and they do not look to the holy one of Israel,

and they do not consult Yahweh.

²And indeed, he is wise, and he brings disaster,

and he does not remove his words,

and he will rise against the house of evildoers

and against the help of workers of iniquity.

³And the Egyptians are human and not God,

and their horses are flesh and not spirit.

And Yahweh stretches out his hand,

and the helper will stumble,

and the one being helped will fall,

and together all of them will come to an end.^a

⁴For Yahweh said this to me:

“As which a lion growls

and a young lion over its prey

when a full group^b of shepherds is called against him,

it is not terrified by their voice,

and to their noise it does not respond,

so Yahweh of hosts will come down to fight upon Mount Zion

and upon its hill.

⁵Like birds flying overhead, so Yahweh of hosts will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will pass over and rescue it.

⁶Turn back to the one against whom the sons of Israel have made deep rebellion.

⁷For on that day, each one will reject his idols of silver

and his idols of gold which your hands have made in sin for you.

⁸And Assyria shall fall by a sword not of a man,

and a sword not of a human shall devour him;

and he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor.

⁹And his rock will pass over because of terror,

and his officers will be terrified because of the flag,”

declares^c Yahweh,

who has a fire in Zion

and has a furnace in Jerusalem.

The Kingdom of Righteousness

32See, a king will rule according to righteousness,

and princes will rule according to justice.

²And each one will be like a hiding place from the wind

and a covering from the rainstorm,

like streams of water in a dry region,

like the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

³And the eyes of those who see will not gaze,^a

and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴And the minds^b of the rash will understand knowledge,^c

and the tongues^d of stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

⁵A fool will no longer be called noble,

and a scoundrel will not be said to be eminent.

⁶For a fool speaks folly,

and his mind^e does iniquity:

to behave wickedly,^f

and to speak error concerning Yahweh,

to leave the throat of the hungry empty,

and he deprives the thirsty of drink.

⁷And a scoundrel, his weapons are evil;

he plans evil devices

to ruin the poor with words of deception

even^g when the speech of the needy is right.

⁸But^h the nobleman plans noble things,

and he stands upon noble things.

Against the Carefree Women

⁹Women who are at ease, rise up; hear my voice!

Carefree daughters, listen to my word!

¹⁰In a yearⁱ you will tremble, carefree ones,

for the vintage will come to an end;

the harvest will not come.

¹¹Tremble, you who are at ease;

tremble, carefree ones;

strip, and strip yourself,

and gird yourself on your loins,^j

¹²mourning over breasts,

over fields of delight,

over the fruitful vine,

¹³over the soil of my people.

It goes up in thorns^k and briers,^l

indeed over all of the houses of joy in the jubilant city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken,

the crowded city^m deserted;

the hill and the watchtower will becomeⁿ a cave forever,

the joy of wild asses, a pasture for^o flocks.

¹⁵Until a spirit is poured out on us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is reckoned as the forest.

¹⁶Then^p justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness will live in the fruitful field.

¹⁷And the work of righteousness will be peace,

and the work of righteousness, quietness and security forever.

¹⁸And my people will dwell in a settlement of peace

and in a dwelling place of security

and in undisturbed resting places.

¹⁹And it hails when the forest comes down,^q

and the city will become low in humiliation.

²⁰Happy are you who sow by all waters,

who let the foot of the ox and the donkey go free.

Yahweh’s Judgment and Help

33Ah, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed!

And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him!^a

When you cease^b destroying, you will be destroyed.

When you stop dealing treacherously, one will deal treacherously with you.

²Yahweh, be gracious to us, we wait for you.

Be our^c arm in the mornings,

indeed our salvation in the time of trouble.

³At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;

because of your exaltation, nations scattered.

⁴And your spoil is gathered,

as the gathering of the locust,

as a swarm of locusts storming on it.

⁵Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he filled Zion with justice and righteousness,

⁶and he will be the security of your times,

an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

The fear of Yahweh is his treasure.

⁷Look! Their heroes cry out in the street;

the messengers of peace weep bitterly.

⁸Highways are deserted;

the traveler on the road ceases.

One breaks a treaty,

he rejects the cities,^d

he does not hold man in high regard.

⁹The land mourns; it languishes.

Lebanon feels abashed; it withers.

Sharon is like the desert,

and Bashan and Carmel are losing their leaves.^e

¹⁰“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh.

“Now I will lift myself up proudly;

now I will raise myself.

¹¹You conceive dry grass, you bring forth stubble;

your breath is a fire; it will consume you.

¹²And the peoples will be burning to lime—

they are burned like thorns that have been cut down in the fire.

¹³You who are far away, hear what I have done;

and you who are near, know my might!”

¹⁴Sinners are afraid in Zion;

trembling has seized the godless:

“Who of us can live^f with devouring fire?

Who of us can live^g with everlasting consuming hearths?”

¹⁵He who walks in righteousness

and speaks uprightness,

who rejects the gain of extortion,

who refuses^h a bribe,

who stops up his earsⁱ from hearing bloodshed^j

and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.

¹⁶That one will live on the heights;

the fortresses of rocks will be his refuge.

His food will be given;

his waters^k will endure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;

they will see a distant land.^l

¹⁸Your mind^m will meditate on the terror:

“Where is the one who counted?

Where is the one who weighed out?

Where is the one who counted the towers?”

¹⁹You will not see the insolent people,

the people whose language is too obscure to understand,ⁿ

whose stammering of tongue cannot be understood.^o

²⁰Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

an undisturbed settlement,

a tent that is not moved.^p

No one will ever pull out its tent pegs,

and none of its ropes will be torn in two.

²¹Rather, there Yahweh will be mighty for us,

a place of rivers and broad streams,^q

a galley ship with^r oars^s cannot go in it,

and a mighty ship cannot pass through it.

²²For Yahweh is our judge; Yahweh is our lawgiver.

Yahweh is our king; he is the one who will save us.

²³Your riggings hang slack;

they do not hold the base of their mast firm,

they do not spread out the sail.

Then the prey of spoil in abundance will be divided;

the lame will take plunder.

²⁴And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;

the people who live in it, their iniquity will be taken away.