Isaiah 30

Warning against Alliance with Egypt

30“Oh rebellious children!” declares^a Yahweh,

“to make a plan, but^b not from me,

and pour out a libation, but^c not from my Spirit,

so as to add^d sin to sin.

²Who go to go down to Egypt,

but^e they do not ask of my mouth,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh

and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.

³And the protection of Pharaoh shall be shame to you,

and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, humiliation.

⁴For his officials are at Zoan,

and his envoys reach to Hanes.

⁵Everyone will start to stink because of a people that cannot profit them,

not for help and not for profiting,

but for shame and also for disgrace.”

Oracle regarding the Negev

⁶An oracle of the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of trouble and distress,

of lioness and lion,

among^f them are snake and flying serpent;

they carry their wealth on the backs^g of male donkeys

and their treasures on the humps^h of camels,

to a people that cannot profit them.

⁷Forⁱ Egyptians^j help with vanity and emptiness,

therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are sitting.”

⁸Now go, write it on a tablet with them,

and inscribe it on a scroll,

that^k it may be for the time to come,^l

forever, forever.

⁹For it is a people of rebellion, deceitful children,

children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,

¹⁰who say to those who do see, “You must not see!”

and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us;

speak smooth things to us,

see illusions,

¹¹turn aside from the way, turn aside from the path,

put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”

¹²Therefore the holy one of Israel says this:

“Because you are rejecting this word

and you trust in oppression and cunning^m

and you rely on it,

¹³therefore this iniquity shall come for you like a breach about to fall,

bulging out on a high wall that breaksⁿ suddenly, in an instant.

¹⁴And he breaks it like a vessel of a potter^o breaks,

that is crushed; he has no compassion,

and no potsherd is found among its fragments^p to take fire^q from the hearth,

or to skim^r water from the cistern.”

¹⁵For the Lord Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, said this:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

your strength shall be in quietness and in trust.”

But^s you were not willing, ¹⁶and you said,

“No! For we will flee on horses!”^t Therefore you shall flee!

And, “We will ride on swift horses!”^u Therefore your pursuers shall be swift!

¹⁷One thousand because of^v a threat of one,

because^w of a threat of five you shall flee,

until you are left like a flagstaff on top^x of a mountain,

and like a signal on a hill.

Yahweh Will Show Mercy

¹⁸Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy,

for Yahweh is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For people will live in Zion;

in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep.

Surely he will be gracious to you;

when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.

²⁰And the Lord will give you the bread of distress

and the water of oppression,

but^y your teachers will not hide themselves^z any longer.

And your eyes shall see^a your teachers.

²¹And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying,

“this is the way; walk in it,”

when you go to your right

and when you go to your left.

²²And you will defile the plating of your silver idols

and the covering of your gold image.

You will scatter them like contaminated things;^b

you will say to it, “Filth!”^c

²³And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground,

and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fertile.^d

On that day, your cattle will graze in broad pastures;^e

²⁴and the oxen and the donkeys that till^f the ground will eat fodder, sorrel

that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

²⁵And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill,

watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.

²⁶And the light of the full 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 Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people,

and he heals the wound of his blow.

Judgment against Assyria

²⁷Look! The name of Yahweh comes from afar,

burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud.

His lips are full of indignation,

and his tongue is like a devouring fire.

²⁸And his breath is like an overflowing river;

it reaches up to the neck

to shake the nations with the sieve of worthlessness;

and a bridle that leads astray is on the jawbones of the peoples.

²⁹You shall have a song^g as in the night when a holy festival is kept,

and a gladness of heart like one who goes with the flute,

to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel.

³⁰And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard,

and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen,

in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire,

with a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones^h of hail.

³¹Indeed, Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahweh;

he strikes with the rod.

³²And every stroke of the staff of foundationⁱ that Yahweh lays will be on it with timbrels and lyres,

and he will fight against it^j with battles of brandishing.

³³For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday;

indeed, it is made ready for the king.

He makes its pile of wood deep and wide;

he makes fire and wood abundant.^k

The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.