THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

 

Isaiah Chapter 30

1 ¶ Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who carry out plans, but not mine; and weave alliances, but against my will, that they may add sin to sin:

2 They set out to go down into Egypt, without asking my advice; to take refuge in Pharaoh’s protection, placing their trust in the shadow of Egypt!

3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will become your shame, and trust in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.

4 Though Judah’s officials are at Zoan, and his envoys have reached Hanes.

5 They will all be brought to shame through a people who cannot help them, or provide any benefit, but bring shame, and reproach.

6 An oracle about the beasts of the south: In the land of trouble and anguish, the home of the lioness and lion, the viper and fiery flying reptile, they will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot help them.

7 For Egypt’s help is worthless, and futile: therefore I have called her, The boaster who only sits.

8 ¶ Come now, write it on a tablet, and record it in a book, that it may be a permanent witness in the days to come:

9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD:

10 Who say to the seers, Do not see; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy what is right, tell us pleasant things, prophesy lies:

11 Turn aside from the way, leave the path, cease holding the Holy One of Israel up before us.

12 Therefore the Holy One of Israel says this, Because you despise this warning, and trust in perversity and oppression, and rely on them:

13 This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall that bows out and is ready to fall, whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant.

14 And he will break it just like a potter’s jar is broken to pieces; without any concern for it: so that among the broken shards there is not a piece big enough to carry fire from the hearth, or water from a cistern.

15 For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says; By returning and staying calm you will be saved; by being quiet and trusting you will be strong: but you refuse.

16 No, you answer; we will flee on horses; and so you will flee: and, We will ride on fast horses; but those who pursue you will be faster.

17 One thousand will run away when one threatens; and at the threat of five you will flee: till you are left like a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and a banner on a hill.

18 ¶ But the LORD is waiting, to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion: for the LORD is a God of justice: blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 For you people living in Zion and in Jerusalem: you will not weep any longer: he will be very gracious to you when he hears your cry; as soon as he hears it, he will answer you.

20 And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, your teachers will no longer be hidden, but your eyes will see your teachers:

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

22 Then you will defile your carved images overlaid with silver, and your molten images overlaid with gold: you will throw them away like a menstruous cloth; and call them filth.

23 Then he will give you rain for the seed, that you sow in the ground; and bread from the increase of the earth, and it will be rich and nourishing: in that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.

24 In the same way, the oxen and young donkeys that till the ground will eat clean fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

25 And on every lofty mountain, and every high hill, there will be rivers and streams of water on that day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26 Then the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times as bright, like the light of seven days, on the day that the LORD binds up the broken limbs of his people, and heals the wounds that he made.

27 ¶ Look, the name of the LORD is coming from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a consuming fire:

28 And his breath, is like an overflowing stream, reaching to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and there will be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one walks with the music of a flute to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

30 And the LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, with furious anger, and a devouring flame of fire, with a cloudburst, tempest, and hailstones.

31 For at the voice of the LORD the Assyrians will be terrified, when he strikes them with a rod.

32 And every time the rod with which the LORD punishes passes through, it will be to the beat of tambourines and lyres: and he will fight against him with brandished weapons.

33 For Tophet was prepared long ago; yea, it is made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: and piled high with plenty of burning logs; the breath of the LORD, like a torrent of sulfur, will kindle it.