Isaiah - Chapter 30

1Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, who take counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, 2that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! 3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes. 5They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them]. 7For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still. 8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. 9For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh; 10who tell the seers, \"Don't see;\" and to the prophets, \"Don't prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits, 11get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.\" 12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, \"Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon; 13therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. 14He shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces of it a broken piece with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.\" 15For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. You would not: 16but you said, No, for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift. 17One thousand [shall flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill. 18Therefore will Yahweh wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. 19For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear, he will answer you. 20Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be hidden anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers; 21and your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it; when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. 22You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as an unclean thing; you shall tell it, Get you hence. 23He will give the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures; 24the oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. 25There shall be on every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, brooks [and] streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound. 27Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire; 28and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples. 29You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel. 30Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones. 31For through the voice of Yahweh shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he strike [him]. 32Every stroke of the appointed staff, which Yahweh shall lay on him, shall be with [the sound of] tambourines and harps; and in battles with the brandishing [of his arm] will he fight with them. 33For a Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; the pile of it is fire and much wood; the breath of Yahweh, like a stream of sulfur, does kindle it.