Isaiah 30 — AAB

The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

30Verse 1“Woe to the rebellious children,”declares the LORD,“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,who form an alliance, but against My will,
heaping up sin upon sin.^{Verse 2}They set out to go down to Egyptwithout asking My advice,to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protectionand take refuge in Egypt’s shade.^{Verse 3}But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.^{Verse 4}For though their princes are at Zoanand their envoys have arrived in Hanes,^{Verse 5}everyone will be put to shamebecause of a people useless to them.They bring neither help nor benefit,but only shame and disgrace.”^{Verse 6}This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:
Through a land of hardship and distress,of lioness and lion,
of viper and flying serpent,they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeysand their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people of no profit to them.^{Verse 7}Egypt’s help is futile and empty;therefore I have called her
Rahab Who Sits Still.^{+Verse 8}Go now, write it on a tablet in their presenceand inscribe it on a scroll;it will be for the days to come,a witness forever and ever.^{Verse 9}These are rebellious people, deceitful children,children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.^{Verse 10}They say to the seers,“Stop seeing visions!”and to the prophets,“Do not prophesy to us the truth!Speak to us pleasant words;prophesy illusions.^{Verse 11}Get out of the way; turn off the road.Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”^{Verse 12}Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message,trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,^{Verse 13}this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,a bulge in a high wall,whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!^{Verse 14}It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,shattered so that no fragment can be found.Not a shard will be found in the dustlarge enough to scoop the coals from a hearth
or to skim the water from a cistern.”^{Verse 15}For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
“By repentance and restyou would be saved;your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”^{Verse 16}“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”Therefore you will flee!“We will ride swift horses,”but your pursuers will be faster.^{Verse 17}A thousand will flee at the threat of one;at the threat of five you will all flee,until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,like a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

^{Verse 18}Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;therefore He rises to show you compassion,for the LORD is a just God.Blessed are all who wait for Him.^{Verse 19}O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.^{Verse 20}The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.^{Verse 21}And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”^{Verse 22}So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”^{Verse 23}Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.^{Verse 24}The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.^{Verse 25}And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.^{Verse 26}The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.^{Verse 27}Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,with burning anger and dense smoke.His lips are full of fury,and His tongue is like a consuming fire.^{Verse 28}His breath is like a rushing torrentthat rises to the neck.He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.^{Verse 29}You will singas on the night of a holy festival,and your heart will rejoicelike one who walks to the music of a flute,going up to the mountain of the LORD,to the Rock of Israel.^{Verse 30}And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heardand His mighty arm to be revealed,striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.^{Verse 31}For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;He will strike them with His scepter.^{Verse 32}And with every stroke of the rod of punishment⁺that the LORD brings down on them,the tambourines and lyres will soundas He battles with weapons brandished.^{Verse 33}For Topheth has long been prepared;it has been made ready for the king.Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,with plenty of fire and wood.The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,sets it ablaze.