Isaiah 31

Alliance with Egypt Is Futile

³¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

and who rely on horses,

who trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord!^*

²Yet he is wise and can bring disaster;

he does not depart from his words

but will rise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.^*

³The Egyptians are human and not God;

their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.^*

⁴For thus the Lord said to me,

“As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey

and, when a band of shepherds is called out against it,

is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.^*

⁵Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”^*

⁶Turn back to him whom you^f have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel.^{* 7}For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.^*

⁸“Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of mortals,

and a sword not of humans shall devour him;

he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor.^*

⁹His rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.^*