Isaiah 30
30
Futile Confidence in Egypt
1“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
#Is. 29:15“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
#Deut. 29:19That they may add sin to sin;
2#Is. 31:1; Jer. 43:7Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And #Num. 27:21; Josh. 9:14; 1 Kin. 22:7; Jer. 21:2; 42:2, 20have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3#Is. 20:5; Jer. 37:5, 7Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.
4For his princes were at #Is. 19:11Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5#Jer. 2:36They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
Or be help or benefit,
But a shame and also a reproach.”
6#Is. 57:9; Hos. 8:9; 12:1The burden against the beasts of the South.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
#Deut. 8:15; Is. 14:29The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;
7#Jer. 37:7For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.
A Rebellious People
8Now go, #Hab. 2:2write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
9That #Deut. 32:20; Is. 1:2, 4; 65:2this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
10#Is. 5:20; Jer. 11:21; Amos 2:12; Mic. 2:6Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
#1 Kin. 22:8, 13; Jer. 6:14; 23:17, 26; Ezek. 13:7; Mic. 2:11; Rom. 16:18; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you #Lev. 26:43; Num. 15:31; Prov. 1:30; 13:13; Is. 5:24; Ezek. 20:13, 16, 24; Amos 2:4despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
#1 Kin. 20:30; Ps. 62:3, 4; Is. 58:12Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking #Is. 29:5comes suddenly, in an instant.
14And #Ps. 2:9; Jer. 19:11He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”
15For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
#Ps. 116:7; Is. 7:4; 28:12“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
#Matt. 23:37But you would not,
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!
17#Lev. 26:36; Deut. 28:25; 32:30; Josh. 23:10; (Prov. 28:1)One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.
God Will Be Gracious
18Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be #Is. 33:2gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
#Ps. 2:12; 34:8; Prov. 16:20; Jer. 17:7Blessed are all those who #Is. 26:8wait for Him.
19For the people #Is. 65:9; (Ezek. 37:25, 28)shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall #Is. 25:8weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will #Ps. 50:15; Is. 65:24; (Matt. 7:7–11)answer you.
20And though the Lord gives you
#1 Kin. 22:27; Ps. 127:2The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet #Ps. 74:9; Amos 8:11your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you #Josh. 1:7turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
22#2 Chr. 31:1; Is. 2:20; 31:7You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
#Hos. 14:8You will say to them, “Get away!”
23#(Matt. 6:33); 1 Tim. 6:8Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
24Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25There will be #Is. 2:14, 15on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the #Is. 2:10–21; 34:2great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
26Moreover #(Is. 60:19, 20; Rev. 21:23; 22:5)the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.
Judgment on Assyria
27Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
28#Is. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:8His breath is like an overflowing stream,
#Is. 8:8Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;
And there shall be #2 Kin. 19:28; Is. 37:29a bridle in the jaws of the people,
Causing them to err.
29You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into #(Is. 2:3)the mountain of the Lord,
To the Mighty One of Israel.
30#Is. 29:6The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, #Is. 28:2and hailstones.
31For #Is. 14:25; 37:36through the voice of the Lord
Assyria will be beaten down,
As He strikes with the #Is. 10:5, 24rod.
32And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the Lord lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of #Is. 11:15brandishing He will fight with it.
33#2 Kin. 23:10; Jer. 7:31For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.
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Isaiah 30: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 30
30
Judah’s Worthless Treaty with Egypt
1“What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,”
says the Lord.
“You make plans that are contrary to mine.
You make alliances not directed by my Spirit,
thus piling up your sins.
2For without consulting me,
you have gone down to Egypt for help.
You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.
You have tried to hide in his shade.
3But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated,
and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.
4For though his power extends to Zoan
and his officials have arrived in Hanes,
5all who trust in him will be ashamed.
He will not help you.
Instead, he will disgrace you.”
6This message came to me concerning the animals in the Negev:
The caravan moves slowly
across the terrible desert to Egypt—
donkeys weighed down with riches
and camels loaded with treasure—
all to pay for Egypt’s protection.
They travel through the wilderness,
a place of lionesses and lions,
a place where vipers and poisonous snakes live.
All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return.
7Egypt’s promises are worthless!
Therefore, I call her Rahab—
the Harmless Dragon.#30:7 Hebrew Rahab who sits still. Rahab is the name of a mythical sea monster that represents chaos in ancient literature. The name is used here as a poetic name for Egypt.
A Warning for Rebellious Judah
8Now go and write down these words.
Write them in a book.
They will stand until the end of time
as a witness
9that these people are stubborn rebels
who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions.
10They tell the seers,
“Stop seeing visions!”
They tell the prophets,
“Don’t tell us what is right.
Tell us nice things.
Tell us lies.
11Forget all this gloom.
Get off your narrow path.
Stop telling us about your
‘Holy One of Israel.’”
12This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise what I tell you
and trust instead in oppression and lies,
13calamity will come upon you suddenly—
like a bulging wall that bursts and falls.
In an instant it will collapse
and come crashing down.
14You will be smashed like a piece of pottery—
shattered so completely that
there won’t be a piece big enough
to carry coals from a fireplace
or a little water from the well.”
15This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
But you would have none of it.
16You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt.
They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’
But the only swiftness you are going to see
is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!
17One of them will chase a thousand of you.
Five of them will make all of you flee.
You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill
or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.”
Blessings for the Lord’s People
18So the Lord must wait for you to come to him
so he can show you his love and compassion.
For the Lord is a faithful God.
Blessed are those who wait for his help.
19O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem,
you will weep no more.
He will be gracious if you ask for help.
He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.
20Though the Lord gave you adversity for food
and suffering for drink,
he will still be with you to teach you.
You will see your teacher with your own eyes.
21Your own ears will hear him.
Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,”
whether to the right or to the left.
22Then you will destroy all your silver idols
and your precious gold images.
You will throw them out like filthy rags,
saying to them, “Good riddance!”
23Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock. 24The oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat good grain, its chaff blown away by the wind. 25In that day, when your enemies are slaughtered and the towers fall, there will be streams of water flowing down every mountain and hill. 26The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days in one! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and cure the wounds he gave them.
27Look! The Lord is coming from far away,
burning with anger,
surrounded by thick, rising smoke.
His lips are filled with fury;
his words consume like fire.
28His hot breath pours out like a flood
up to the neck of his enemies.
He will sift out the proud nations for destruction.
He will bridle them and lead them away to ruin.
29But the people of God will sing a song of joy,
like the songs at the holy festivals.
You will be filled with joy,
as when a flutist leads a group of pilgrims
to Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord—
to the Rock of Israel.
30And the Lord will make his majestic voice heard.
He will display the strength of his mighty arm.
It will descend with devouring flames,
with cloudbursts, thunderstorms, and huge hailstones.
31At the Lord’s command, the Assyrians will be shattered.
He will strike them down with his royal scepter.
32And as the Lord strikes them with his rod of punishment,#30:32 As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac version; Masoretic Text reads with the founded rod.
his people will celebrate with tambourines and harps.
Lifting his mighty arm, he will fight the Assyrians.
33Topheth—the place of burning—
has long been ready for the Assyrian king;
the pyre is piled high with wood.
The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano,
will set it ablaze.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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