Alliance with Egypt Condemned

1“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares Yahweh,

“Who execute counsel, but not Mine,

And [†]make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,

In order to add sin to sin,

2Who go down to Egypt—

But did not ask [†]Me—

To find strength in the strong defense of Pharaoh

And to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

3Therefore the strong defense of Pharaoh will be your shame

And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, your dishonor.

4For their princes are at Zoan

And their messengers reach Hanes.

5Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,

Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

6The [†]oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.

Through a land of distress and anguish,

From [†]where come lioness and lion, viper and flying fiery serpent,

They carry their wealth on the [†]backs of young donkeys

And their treasures on camels’ humps,

To a people who cannot profit them;

7Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.

Therefore, I have called [†]her

“[†]Rahab who has ceased.”

8Now go, write it on a tablet before them

And inscribe it on a scroll,

That it may be in the time to come

[†]As a witness forever.

9For this is a rebellious people, false sons,

Sons who are not willing to listen

To the law of Yahweh,

10Who say to the seers, “You must not see,”

And to those who have visions, “You must not behold visions for us of what is right,

Speak to us [†]pleasant words,

Behold visions of illusions.

11Get out of the way, turn aside from the path,

[†]Cease speaking before us about the Holy One of Israel.”

12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,

“Since you have rejected this word

And have put your trust in oppression and deviousness and have relied on them,

13Therefore this iniquity will be to you

Like a breach about to fall,

A bulge in a high wall,

Whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant,

14Whose breaking is like the breaking of a potter’s jar,

[†]So ruthlessly shattered

That a potsherd will not be found among its pieces

To [†]take fire from a hearth

Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

15For thus Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, has said,

“In [†]repentance and rest you will be saved,

In quietness and trust is your might.”

But you were not willing,

16And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”

Therefore you shall flee!

“And we will ride on swift horses,”

Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

17One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;

You will flee at the threat of five,

Until you are left as a [†]flag on a mountain top

And as a [†]standard on a hill.

Yahweh Is Gracious and Just

18Therefore Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you,

And therefore He is on high to have compassion on you.

For Yahweh is a God of justice;

How blessed are all those who wait for Him.

19[†]O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. 20The Lord has given you bread of distress and water of oppression; He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. 21And your ears will hear a word behind you, “[†]This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. 22And you will defile your graven images overlaid with your silver, and your molten images plated with your gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing and say to [†]them, “Be gone!”

23Then He will give you rain for [†]the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the produce of the ground, and it will be [†]rich and fat; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. 24Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which [†]has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25And it will be that on every lofty mountain and on every lifted up hill there will be [†]streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day Yahweh binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise [†]He has inflicted.

27Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from afar;

Burning is His anger and heavy is His [†]smoke;

His lips are filled with indignation

And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

28His breath is like an overflowing torrent,

Which reaches to the neck,

To shake the nations back and forth in a [†]sieve of worthlessness,

And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which staggers one to ruin.

29You will have [†]songs as in the night when you set yourself apart as holy for the festival,

And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,

To go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.

30And Yahweh will cause [†]His splendid voice to be heard,

And the [†]descending of His arm to be seen in raging anger,

And in the flame of a consuming fire

In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.

31For at the voice of Yahweh Assyria will be dismayed,

When He strikes with the rod.

32And every [†]blow of the [†]appointed staff,

Which Yahweh will cause to rest upon him,

Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;

And in battles, waving weapons He will fight them.

33For [†]Topheth has long been ready,

Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.

He has made it deep and large,

[†]A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;

The breath of Yahweh, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.