Isaiah 30
30
Warnings to the Stubborn Nation
1The Lord said,
“How terrible it will be for these stubborn children.
They make plans, but they don’t ask me to help them.
They make agreements with other nations, without asking my Spirit.
They are adding more and more sins to themselves.
2They go down to Egypt for help,
but they didn’t ask me about it first.
They hope they will be saved by the king of Egypt.
They want Egypt to protect them.
3But hiding in Egypt will bring you only shame.
Egypt’s protection will only disappoint you.
4Your officers have gone to Zoan.
Your messengers have gone to Hanes.
5But they will be put to shame,
because Egypt is useless to them.
Egypt will give no help and be of no use.
It will cause them only shame and embarrassment.”
God’s Message to Judah
6This is the message about the animals in southern Judah:
Southern Judah is a dangerous place.
It is full of lions and lionesses,
poisonous snakes and darting snakes.
The messengers travel through there with their wealth on donkeys’ backs.
They have put their treasure on the backs of camels.
They carry them to a nation that cannot help them.
7They go to Egypt whose help is useless.
So I call that country Rahab the Do-Nothing.
8Now write this on a sign for the people.
Write this on a scroll.
Write these things for the days to come.
Write them so they will last forever.
9These people are like children who lie and refuse to obey.
They refuse to listen to the Lord’s teachings.
10They tell the seers,
“Don’t see any more visions!”
They say to the prophets,
“Don’t tell us the truth!
Say things that will make us feel good.
See only good things for us.
11Stop blocking our path.
Get out of our way.
Stop telling us
about God, the Holy One of Israel.”
12So this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“You people have refused to accept this message from the Lord.
You depended on cruelty and lies to help you.
13You are guilty of these things.
So you are like a high wall with cracks in it.
It will fall suddenly and break into small pieces.
14You will be like a clay jar that breaks.
It breaks into many pieces.
Those pieces will be too small
to take coals from the fire
or to get water from a well.”
15This is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“If you come back to me and trust me, you will be saved.
If you will be calm and trust me, you will be strong.”
But you don’t want to do that.
16You say, “No, we need horses to run away on.”
So you will run away on horses.
You say, “We will ride away on fast horses.”
So those who chase you will be fast.
17One enemy will make threats,
and 1,000 of your men will run away.
Five enemies will make threats,
and all of you will run from them.
You will be left alone like a flagpole on a hilltop.
You will be like a banner on a hill.
18The Lord wants to show his mercy to you.
He wants to rise and comfort you.
The Lord is a fair God.
And everyone who waits for his help will be happy.
God Will Help His People
19You people who live on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will not cry anymore. The Lord will hear your crying, and he will comfort you. The Lord will hear you, and he will help you. 20The Lord has given you sorrow and hurt. It was like the bread and water you ate every day. But he is your teacher, and he will not continue to hide from you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. 21If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you. It will say, “This is the right way. You should go this way.” 22You have statues covered with silver and gold. But you will ruin them for further use. You will throw them away like filthy rags. You will say, “Go away!”
23At that time the Lord will send rain for you. You will plant seeds in the ground, and the ground will grow food for you. The harvest will be very great. You will have plenty of food in the fields for your animals. There will be large fields for your sheep. 24Your oxen and donkeys will work the soil. They will have all the food they need. You will have to use shovels and pitchforks to spread all the food for your animals to eat. 25Every mountain and hill will have streams filled with water. These things will happen after many people are killed and the towers are pulled down. 26At that time the light from the moon will be bright like the sun. The light from the sun will be seven times brighter than now. The light from the sun in one day will be like a full week. These things will happen when the Lord bandages his broken people and heals the hurts he gave them.
27Look! The Lord comes from far away.
His anger is like a fire with thick clouds of smoke.
His mouth is filled with anger,
and his tongue is like a burning fire.
28The Lord’s breath is like a rushing river.
It rises until it reaches the throat.
He will judge the nations as if he is sifting them through the strainer of destruction.
He will place in their mouths a bit that will lead them the wrong way.
29You will sing happy songs
as on the nights you begin a festival.
You will be happy as people listening to flutes
as they go to the mountain of the Lord.
The Lord is the Rock of Israel.
30The Lord will cause all people to hear his great voice.
He will cause them to see his powerful arm come down.
It will come with anger like a great fire that burns everything.
It will be like a great storm with much rain and hail.
31Assyria will be afraid when it hears the voice of the Lord.
The Lord will beat Assyria with a rod.
32The Lord will punish Assyria with a rod.
He will beat them to the music of tambourines and harps.
The Lord will fight against them with his mighty weapons.
33Topheth# Gehenna; the Valley of Hinnom. Here people burned the bodies of criminals and animals, along with garbage. has been made ready for a long time.
It is ready for the king.
It was made deep and wide.
There is much wood and fire there.
And the Lord’s breath will come
like a stream of burning sulfur and burn it.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 30: ICB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Isaiah 30
30
1“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine;
and who make a league, but not of my spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4For though his officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,
5every one comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the viper and the flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of asses,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7For Egypt's help is worthless and empty,
therefore I have called her
“Rahab who sits still.”
8And now, go, write it before them on a tablet,
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness for ever.
9For they are a rebellious people,
lying sons,
sons who will not hear
the instruction of the Lord;
10who say to the seers, “See not”;
and to the prophets, “Prophesy not to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel.”
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word,
and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and rely on them;
13therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
14and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
which is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
15For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
And you would not, 16but you said,
“No! We will speed upon horses,”
therefore you shall speed away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds,”
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.
18Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19Yea, O people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. 20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22Then you will defile your silver-covered graven images and your gold-plated molten images. You will scatter them as unclean things; you will say to them, “Begone!”
23And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures; 24and the oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25And upon every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26Moreover 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 when the Lord binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 30And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones. 31The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he smites with his rod. 32And every stroke of the staff of punishment which the Lord lays upon them will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with brandished arm he will fight with them. 33For a burning place#30.33 Or Topheth has long been prepared; yea, for the king#30.33 Or Molech it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America