Isaiah 30
1 Tragedy is coming to my defiant children, declares the Lord. You make plans that don't come from me; you make alliances against my wishes, adding sin to sin.
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 You go to Egypt without asking me, looking to Pharaoh for protection, hoping to find safety hiding behind Egypt.
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 But the protection of Pharaoh will be an embarrassment to you; hiding behind Egypt will only bring you humiliation.
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 Even though he has officials at Zoan and his messengers reach Hanes,
For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 the Egyptians will offend everyone because they are useless—they're no help and good for nothing, except for causing shame and bringing disgrace.
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 A message about the animals of the Negev. The messengers travel through a harsh and hostile land where lions and lionesses live, vipers and vicious snakes too. Their donkeys are burdened down with valuable gifts, their camels are loaded with treasure, to give to a worthless people that can't help.
The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from which come the young and the old lion, the viper and 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 shall not profit them.
7 Egypt's support is an empty breath of wind. That's why I call her Pride Sitting Down.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go and write all this down on a tablet and on a scroll so that it will last forever and ever.
Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, who refuse to listen to the Lord's instructions.
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 They tell people who see visions, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Don't give us prophecies about doing right—just tell us pleasant things and give us fake prophecies.
Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Stop telling us straight; go a different direction! We don't want to hear any more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Withdraw from the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 So this is how the Holy One of Israel replies, Since you have rejected this message, and since you trust in oppression and believe in dishonesty,
Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and relied on them:
13 your punishment will suddenly fall on you, like a high wall that bulges out and collapses in an instant.
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 You will be smashed like a clay pot, broken into such tiny pieces that there won't be a big enough piece to pick up coals from a hearth or a little bit of water from a well.
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter’s vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a piece to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.
15 This is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, said, If you repent and patiently trust in me, you would be saved; you would be strong if you had such calm confidence. But you refused to do it.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 You replied, “No! We'll escape on horseback! We'll get away on fast horses!” But the fast ones will be the ones chasing you!
But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 Just one of them will chase after a thousand of you. Just five of them will make you all run away. All that will be left of you will look like a flag fluttering on the top of a mountain, a banner waving on a hill.
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 So the Lord waits, wanting to be kind to you, ready to act to show you mercy, for the Lord is a God who does what is right. All who wait for him are blessed.
And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 People of Zion, you who live in Jerusalem, you won't have to weep any more. When you cry for help he will be kind to you. He will answer you immediately he hears you.
For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20 Even though the Lord will give you the bread of hardship to eat and the water of suffering to drink, your teacher will no longer hide himself from you—you will see him with your own eyes.
And though the Lord shall give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thy eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 When you walk to the right or to the left, you will hear this command coming from behind you: “This is the way to follow.”
And thy ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22 You will defile your silver-coated idols coated with silver and your gold-covered images. You will throw them away like a dirty cloth used for periods, and say to them, “out of here!”
Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a polluted cloth; thou shalt say to it, Be gone from me.
23 He will send rain when you sow, and the land will produce great harvests. At that time your cattle will feed in rich pastures.
Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, with which thou shalt sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen and donkeys that help cultivate the earth will eat good greens and grain, spread with fork and shovel.
The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that plow the ground shall eat cured fodder, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 At that time when your enemies are killed and the fortresses fall, streams of water will flow down every mountain and hill.
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 The moon will shine as bright as the sun, and the sun will shine seven times brighter, like having seven days light in one. This is the way it will be when the Lord bandages the injuries of his people and heals the wounds he caused them.
Moreover 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 bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Look how the Lord arrives from far away, burning with anger and accompanied by thick clouds of smoke! What he says shows his anger—it's like a fire that burns everything up.
Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden of it is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 His breath rushes out like a flood that comes up to the neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that destroys them; he puts bridles in the mouths of the different peoples to lead them away.
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 But you will have a song to sing like you do on the night of a holy festival. You will celebrate in happiness like those who play pipes as they go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come upon the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 The Lord will shout so everyone hears him he will reveal his great power. He will hit out in his anger and fury, with a fire that burns everything up, and with torrential rain, storm, and hail.
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 At the Lord's command the Assyrians will be shattered, knocked down by his scepter.
For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, who smote with a rod.
32 Every time the Lord hits them with his rod of punishment it will be accompanied by the music of tambourines and harps as he fights them, swinging into them in battle.
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 The place of burning has been prepared a long time ago, ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, and has plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a flood of burning sulfur, sets it on fire.
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile of it is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
