Isaiah 30

1 Yahweh says, “Terrible things will happen to you, my people who rebel against me. You make plans, but what you plan is not what I want. You have made an alliance [with the rulers of Egypt], but you did not ask my Spirit [if that was what you should do]. By doing that, you have increased the number of your sins.

Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement, but not by my spirit, increasing their sin:

2 You went to Egypt [to ask their rulers for help], without asking for my advice. You have trusted in [the army of] the king of Egypt to protect you; you have [trusted in them] [like] people sit in the shade [to protect themselves from the sun] [MET].

Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without authority from me; who are looking to the strength of Pharaoh for help, and whose hope is in the shade of Egypt.

3 [But] the result of your trusting in the king of Egypt is that you will be [disappointed and] disgraced; because of trusting in him, you will be humiliated.

And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing.

4 Officials/ambassadors [from Judah] have gone to Zoan and Hanes [cities in Egypt to make treaties],

For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives have come to Hanes.

5 but all those [who trust in the King of Egypt] will be humiliated, because that nation will not be able to help you; the treaty that you have made [requesting help from them] will be useless; instead, the result will be that you will be humiliated and disgraced [DOU].”

For they have all come with offerings to a people of no use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame and a bad name.

6 [I received from Yahweh] this message about the animals in the southern part of Judah: That area is one where [people experience a lot of] troubles and difficulties, an area where there are male and female lions and various kinds of poisonous snakes. Caravans go through that area taking donkeys and camels loaded with valuable goods. [They are taking them] to Egypt to seek for protection [by the army of Egypt], [but] it will be useless.

The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and grief, the land of the she-lion and the voice of the lion, of the snake and the burning winged snake, they take their wealth on the backs of young asses, and their stores on camels, to a people in whom is no profit.

7 The promises made by [the king of] Egypt are worthless; therefore I call Egypt ‘the sea monster/dragon that does nothing’.

For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so I have said about her, She is Rahab, who has come to an end.

8 Yahweh told me to write on a scroll a message, in order that it would be a witness [to the people of Judah] that would endure forever.

Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come.

9 [It would remind them] that they are deceitful and always rebelling against Yahweh; they refuse to pay attention to what he tells/teaches them.

For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:

10 They tell the people who see/receive visions [from Yahweh], “Stop seeing visions!” They tell the prophets, “Do not reveal to us what is right! Tell us pleasant things; do not tell us visions about things that are true!

Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure:

11 Stop doing what you have been doing [DOU]; stop telling us what the Holy One of Israel [says to us]!”

Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds.

12 Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “You have rejected my message, and you are relying on those who oppress and deceive others.

For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them:

13 Therefore, the result of your sin [of rejecting me] will be that you will [suddenly experience disasters]; what will happen to you will be like [SIM] a cracked wall that suddenly collapses [DOU].

This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.

14 You will be smashed like a clay jar is smashed [when it is dropped], and it shatters completely, with the result that there is not one piece big enough to carry some coals from a stove or to carry a little bit of water from a well.”

And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring.

15 Yahweh, [our] God, the Holy One of Israel, [also] says this: “You will be rescued [from your enemies only] if you repent and trust [in what I will do for you]; you will be strong [only] if you quit worrying and trust in me. But you do not want [to do that].

For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so.

16 You said, ‘No, we will escape on horses [that the army of Egypt will give us]!’ So, you will [try to] flee. You said, ‘We will [escape from the army of Assyria] by riding on swift horses!’ [But] those who pursue you will [also ride] swiftly.

Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of quick-running beasts; so those who go after you will be quick-footed.

17 [As a result], 1,000 [of you] will flee when [only] one of them pursues you! When only five [of their soldiers] threaten [to kill you], [all of] will flee. [Only a few of] you will be left, like [SIM] a [single] flagpole on top of a mountain with one signal flag on the pole.”

A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill.

18 [But] wants to be kind to you; he desires to show you that he is merciful. [Do not forget that] Yahweh is a God who acts justly; he is pleased with those who patiently trust in him.

For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him.

19 You people who live in Jerusalem [DOU], [some day] you will not cry any more. Yahweh will be kind to you when you call out to him for help. He will answer/help you as soon as he hears you call.

O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.

20 Although [now] Yahweh has caused you to [daily] experience [MET] great troubles and suffer much, [he], your teacher, will not hide himself from you. He [SYN] will teach you many things clearly.

And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher on one side, but you will see your teacher:

21 And you will hear him speak to you to guide you. [Right] behind you he will say, “This is the road on which you should walk; walk on this road!”

And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go.

22 When that happens, you will destroy [all] your idols that are covered with silver or gold. You will throw them away like you throw away a filthy rag, and you will say to them, “We do not need you any more!”

And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone!

23 [If you do that], Yahweh will bless you by giving you good rain at the time that you plant your crops. You will have good harvests, and plenty of pasture with grass for your cattle to eat.

And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands.

24 After the wind [blows away the chaff], the oxen and donkeys that [pull the plow to] plow your ground will have good grain to eat.

And the oxen and the young asses which are used for ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free from the waste with fork and basket.

25 At that time, when [your enemies] have been slaughtered and their towers have (collapsed/been destroyed), there will be streams flowing down every hill and mountain [in Judah].

And there will be rivers and streams of water on every tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down.

26 The moon will seem to shine as brightly as the sun, and the sun will seem to shine seven times as brightly as previously. That is what it will be like when Yahweh causes [the suffering of] his people [to cease; it will be as though] [MET] he will be putting bandages on their wounds and healing them.

And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows they have undergone.

27 [It is as though] we see Yahweh coming from far away; he is extremely angry, and there are thick clouds of smoke around him. By what he says [MTY] he shows that he is angry; what he says is like [SIM] a devastating/destructive fire.

See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning with his wrath, with thick smoke going up: his lips are full of passion, and his tongue is like a burning fire:

28 His breath is like [SIM] a flood that covers [his enemies] up to their necks. He will separate [MET] the nations in order to destroy [some of them]; [it is as though] he will put hooks in their mouths and take them away.

And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction, like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way.

29 But [his people] will sing joyfully like they sing during the nights when they celebrate a holy festival. They will be very joyful, like [SIM] [a large group of his people] are joyful when they go up to Zion Hill in Jerusalem, along with men playing flutes [when they are all going there to worship Yahweh]. He is [like] [MET] a huge rock under which [we] Israeli people [are safe].

You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel.

30 And Yahweh will enable [us] to hear him speaking powerfully/majestically. He will show us that he [SYN] is very powerful. [We] will see him [SYN] smash [his enemies]. Being very angry, he will descend with a big rainstorm and thunder and hail [to punish them].

And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice.

31 [The soldiers of] Assyria will be terrified when they hear the voice of Yahweh and when he strikes them with his rod.

For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him.

32 And while Yahweh strikes them to punish them, [his people] will [celebrate by] playing tambourines and harps. [It will be as though] Yahweh will lift up his powerful hand/arm and defeat the Assyrian army in battle.

And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against him.

33 [The valley of] Topheth [outside Jerusalem] has been prepared for a long time; it is ready for the king [of Assyria]; the (funeral pyre/pile of wood) [for burning his body] is wide and high, and [it will be as though] Yahweh will light the fire with his breath, which will come out like a stream of burning sulfur.

For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has been made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: it is massed with fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, puts a light to it.