Isaiah 2:11–22

^11–17People with a big head are headed for a fall,

pretentious egos brought down a peg.

It’s God alone at front-and-center

on the Day we’re talking about,

The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies

is matched against all big-talking rivals,

against all swaggering big names;

Against all giant sequoias

hugely towering,

and against the expansive chestnut;

Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,

against the ranges of Alps and Andes;

Against every soaring skyscraper,

against all proud obelisks and statues;

Against ocean-going luxury liners,

against elegant three-masted schooners.

The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,

the pretentious egos brought down to earth,

Leaving God alone at front-and-center

on the Day we’re talking about.

¹⁸And all those sticks and stones

dressed up to look like gods

will be gone for good.

¹⁹Clamber into caves in the cliffs,

duck into any hole you can find.

Hide from the terror of God,

from his dazzling presence,

When he assumes his full stature on earth,

towering and terrifying.

^20–21On that Day men and women will take

the sticks and stones

They’ve decked out in gold and silver

to look like gods and then worshiped,

And they will dump them

in any ditch or gully,

Then run for rock caves

and cliff hideouts

To hide from the terror of God,

from his dazzling presence,

When he assumes his full stature on earth,

towering and terrifying.

²²Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans,

so full of themselves, so full of hot air!

Can’t you see there’s nothing to them?