Isaiah 31:1–5

Impressed by Military Mathematics

^1–331Doom to those who go off to Egypt

thinking that horses can help them,

Impressed by military mathematics,

awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—

And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,

not so much as a prayer to God.

Still, he must be reckoned with,

a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.

He can call down catastrophe.

He’s a God who does what he says.

He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,

stands up against interfering evildoers.

Egyptians are mortal, not God,

and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.

When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike

will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

^4–5This is what God told me:

“Like a lion, king of the beasts,

that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,

Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds

who arrive to chase it off,

So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down

to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.

And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,

God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.

I’ll protect and rescue it.

Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”