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”, says the LORD, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with 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.
who set out to go down into Egypt without asking for my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge 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 the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 Even though he has officials at Zoan and his messengers reach Hanes,
For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come 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 shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a 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 animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
7 Egypt's support is an empty breath of wind. That's why I call her Pride Sitting Down.
For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits 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 on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
9 For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, who refuse to listen to the Lord's instructions.
For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the LORD’s law;
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 tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant 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.”
Get out of the way. Turn away 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 the Holy One of Israel says, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it,
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 like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in 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.
He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found amongst the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
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 said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,
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 you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will 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 will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a 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.
Therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who 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 will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
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.
Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your 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 when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
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!”
You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”
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.
He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will 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 till the ground will eat savoury feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
25 At that time when your enemies are killed and the fortresses fall, streams of water will flow down every mountain and hill.
There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill 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 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, in the day that the LORD binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
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 LORD’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is 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.
His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
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.
You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock.
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.
The LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.
31 At the Lord's command the Assyrians will be shattered, knocked down by his scepter.
For through the LORD’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his 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.
Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the LORD will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.
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 his burning place has long been ready. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The LORD’s breath, like a stream of sulphur, kindles it.
