The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 30

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 30

1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who have taken counsel, but not of me; and who have covered themselves with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.

2 Who go down to Egypt, without asking at my mouth, to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt.

3 For the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

4 For his princes are in Zoan, and his ambassadors have come to Hanes.

5 They will be ashamed of a people who will be of no help to them, nor profit, but a shame and a reproach.

6 The burden of the beasts of the south. To the land of distress and anguish (from whence come the lioness and the lion, the basilisk and the fiery flying asp), they will carry their goods on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not profit them.

7 For Egypt will help them in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I cried out concerning this: "In their quietness will be their strength."

8 Now therefore go, write this before them on a tablet, and write it down in a book, that it may be written for the time to come, forever and ever.

9 For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who refuse to hear the law of the Lord.

10 Who say to the seers, 'Do not see,' and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy to us what is right.' Speak to us smooth things, and speak to us deceitful flattery. 

11 Turn from the way, turn aside from the path; cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you reject this word, and trust in oppression and wickedness, and rely on them,

13 Therefore this iniquity will be to you like a breached wall, already gathering gale from the highest place, whose fall comes suddenly, in a moment.

14 And he will break it as a potter's vessel is broken; when he breaks it, he will have no pity; there will not be found among its fragments one fit to take fire from the hearth, or to draw water from the well.

15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In turning and in rest would be your salvation; in quietness and in confidence would be your strength, but you would not.

16 But you say, 'No,' but we will flee on horses; Therefore you will flee; and: We will ride on swift horses; therefore your pursuers will be swift.

17 A thousand men will flee at the cry of one, and at the cry of five you will all flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

18 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 who wait for him.

19 For the people will dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you will weep no more; he will surely have compassion on you at the voice of your cry, and when he hears it, he will answer you.

20 The Lord will give you good bread in adversity and water in affliction, but your instructors will no longer flee from you as if they were flying on wings; but your eyes will see all your teachers. 

21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it without turning to the right or to the left.'

22 You will defile the coverings of your silver sculptures and the coverings of your gold sculptures; you will throw them away like a filthy cloth and say to each of them, 'Get out of here!'

23 Then He will give you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and bread from the increase of the land; and it will be fertile and plentiful. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures.

24 And the oxen and the colts that plow the ground will eat pure grain that has been winnowed with the shovel and winnowed with the winnowing sieve. 

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

26 And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the breach of his people and heals the wound of their wound.

27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger and sending out thick smoke; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.

28 And his breath is like an overflowing stream, reaching up to the neck, to sift the nations with a sieve of vanity; and a bridle that causes them to err will be on the jaws of the peoples.

29 There will be a song among you, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and joy of heart, as of one who goes out with a flute to come to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 

30 And the Lord will cause the glory of his voice to be heard, and he will show the lowering of his arm, with the fury of his anger, and the flame of his devouring fire, with lightning, and a flood, and hailstones. 

31 For at the voice of the Lord Assyria, whom he struck with the rod, will be broken to pieces. 

32 And with every stroke of the staff of judgment which the Lord shall give, there shall be tambourines and harps; and with tumultuous battles he shall fight against them. 

33 For a Topheth hath been prepared since yesterday; it is prepared for the king; he hath made it deep and wide; its heap is a fire, and it hath much wood; the breath of the Lord shall kindle it like a torrent of brimstone.