Isaiah 30

1Woe to the rebellious children, declares Yahweh, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and make an alliance, but not by my Spirit, so as to add sin to sin;

2who set out to go down to Egypt without asking my counsel, to take refuge in Pharaoh’s protection and to seek shelter in Egypt’s shade!

3Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and shelter in Egypt’s shade your disgrace.

4For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys have reached Hanes,

5everyone will be put to shame because of a people who cannot benefit them, who bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.

6An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and hardship, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot benefit them.

7Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

8Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll, so that in the days to come it may remain forever and ever.

9For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to listen to the instruction of Yahweh,

10who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things; prophesy illusions.

11Get out of the way; turn aside from the path; rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: Because you reject this word and trust in oppression and deceit and lean on them,

13therefore this iniquity will be for you like a breach in a high wall, bulging and about to fall, whose collapse comes suddenly, in an instant.

14It will break like a potter’s jar, smashed so ruthlessly that among its pieces not a fragment can be found for taking fire from a hearth or scooping water from a cistern.

15For this is what Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, says: In returning and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength. But you were not willing.

16You said, “No, we will flee on horses,” so you will flee! And, “We will ride on swift horses,” so your pursuers will be swift!

17A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left like a flagpole on a mountaintop, like a signal banner on a hill.

18Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you; therefore he rises up to show you compassion. For Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are all who wait for him.

19For a people will live in Zion, in Jerusalem; you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; as soon as he hears it, he will answer you.

20Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teacher will no longer hide himself; your eyes will see your teacher.

21Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a word behind you: “This is the way; walk in it.”

22Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Get out!”

23He will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread that the ground produces will be rich and plentiful. On that day your livestock will graze in wide pastures.

24The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.

25On every high mountain and every lofty hill there will be streams of running water, on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day Yahweh binds up the fractures of his people and heals the wounds from his blows.

27Look, the name of Yahweh comes from far away, burning with his anger, in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.

28His breath is like a flooding torrent that rises up to the neck, to sift the nations in the sieve of destruction; on the jaws of the peoples is a bridle that leads them astray.

29You will have a song as on the night when a festival is kept holy, and gladness of heart as when people go up with the flute to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.

30Yahweh will make his majestic voice heard and will show his arm coming down in raging anger and a flame of devouring fire, with cloudburst and storm and hailstones.

31For at the voice of Yahweh Assyria will be shattered; he will strike it with the rod.

32Every stroke of the appointed rod that Yahweh lays on it will be to the sound of tambourines and harps; in battles with brandished arm he will fight against them.

33For Topheth has long been prepared; indeed, it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of Yahweh, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.