Isaiah 30

1. “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not of Me; and who form an alliance, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

2. Those who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

3. Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the shelter “of protection” in the shadow of Egypt shall be your curse,

4. For his rulers were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

5. They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them, nor be a help nor gain, but a shame and also a reproach.”

6. The burden concerning the beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and woe, the lioness and the lion are from there; the viper, and the fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit;

7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore I have called her Rahab, “Their strength is to do nothing.”

8. Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever,

9. That this is a rebellious people, lying children. They are children who will not hear the law of the LORD;

10. Who say to the seers, “See not,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions;

11. Go out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”

12. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you have despised this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them;

13. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.

14. And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is smashed in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.”

15. For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; and in quietness and hope shall be your strength.” But you were not willing.

16. And you said, “No; for we will flee upon horses.” Therefore you shall flee. And you said, “We will ride upon the swift;” therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

17. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee, until you are left as a pole upon the top of a mountain, and as a sign on a hill.

18. And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you. And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you, for the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.

19. For, O people who dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more; He will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer you.

20. And though the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

21. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

22. You shall also defile the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away like a menstruous cloth. You shall say to it, “Get away.”

23. Then He shall give the rain for your seed, with which you sow the ground. And the bread of the produce of the earth also shall be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle shall feed in large pastures.

24.Also the oxen and the young donkeys that plow the ground shall eat clean fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

25. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers, streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound.

27. Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with His anger, and in thick uplifting of smoke; His lips are full of fury, and His tongue like a devouring fire.

28. And like an overflowing stream, His breath shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. And a bridle will be in the jaws of the people, causing them to go astray.

29. You shall have a song, as in the keeping of a holy feast night; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel.

30. And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and the bringing down of His arm shall be seen with raging anger and the flame of a devouring fire, a cloudburst and storm and hailstones,

31. For through the voice of the LORD, the Assyrian shall be dismayed with the rod with which He smote.

32. And in every place which the ordained staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tambourines drumsand lyres; in battles of shaking He will fight with them,

33. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large. He makes it great with fire and wood. The breath of the LORD kindles it, like a torrent of brimstone.