Isaiah 30
30
1Tragedy is coming to my defiant children, declares the Lord. You make plans that don't come from me; you make alliances against my wishes, adding sin to sin. 2You go to Egypt without asking me, looking to Pharaoh for protection, hoping to find safety hiding behind Egypt. 3But the protection of Pharaoh will be an embarrassment to you; hiding behind Egypt will only bring you humiliation. 4Even though he has officials at Zoan and his messengers reach Hanes, 5the Egyptians will offend everyone because they are useless—they're no help and good for nothing, except for causing shame and bringing disgrace.
6A message about the animals of the Negev. The messengers travel through a harsh and hostile land where lions and lionesses live, vipers and vicious snakes too. Their donkeys are burdened down with valuable gifts, their camels are loaded with treasure, to give to a worthless people that can't help. 7Egypt's support is an empty breath of wind. That's why I call her Pride Sitting Down.#30:7. “Sitting Down”: in other words, Egypt still speaks with arrogance, but it is so weak it does nothing but sit. The word for pride/arrogance also referred to a mythical sea-monster, Rahab.
8Now go and write all this down on a tablet and on a scroll so that it will last forever and ever. 9For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, who refuse to listen to the Lord's instructions. 10They tell people who see visions, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Don't give us prophecies about doing right—just tell us pleasant things and give us fake prophecies. 11Stop telling us straight; go a different direction! We don't want to hear any more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12So this is how the Holy One of Israel replies, Since you have rejected this message, and since you trust in oppression and believe in dishonesty, 13your punishment will suddenly fall on you, like a high wall that bulges out and collapses in an instant. 14You will be smashed like a clay pot, broken into such tiny pieces that there won't be a big enough piece to pick up coals from a hearth or a little bit of water from a well.
15This is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, said, If you repent and patiently trust in me, you would be saved; you would be strong if you had such calm confidence. But you refused to do it.
16You replied, “No! We'll escape on horseback! We'll get away on fast horses!”
But the fast ones will be the ones chasing you! 17Just one of them will chase after a thousand of you. Just five of them will make you all run away. All that will be left of you will look like a flag fluttering on the top of a mountain, a banner waving on a hill.
18So the Lord waits, wanting to be kind to you, ready to act to show you mercy, for the Lord is a God who does what is right. All who wait for him are blessed.
19People of Zion, you who live in Jerusalem, you won't have to weep any more. When you cry for help he will be kind to you. He will answer you immediately when he hears you. 20Even though the Lord will give you the bread of hardship to eat and the water of suffering to drink, your teacher will no longer hide himself from you—you will see him with your own eyes. 21When you walk to the right or to the left, you will hear this command coming from behind you: “This is the way to follow.”
22You will defile your silver-coated idols coated with silver and your gold-covered images. You will throw them away like a dirty cloth used for periods, and say to them, “out of here!” 23He will send rain when you sow, and the land will produce great harvests. At that time your cattle will feed in rich pastures. 24The oxen and donkeys that help cultivate the earth will eat good greens and grain, spread with fork and shovel. 25At that time when your enemies are killed and the fortresses fall, streams of water will flow down every mountain and hill. 26The moon will shine as bright as the sun, and the sun will shine seven times brighter, like having seven days light in one. This is the way it will be when the Lord bandages the injuries of his people and heals the wounds he caused them.
27Look how the Lord arrives from far away, burning with anger and accompanied by thick clouds of smoke! What he says shows his anger—it's like a fire that burns everything up. 28His breath rushes out like a flood that comes up to the neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that destroys them; he puts bridles in the mouths of the different peoples to lead them away.
29But you will have a song to sing like you do on the night of a holy festival. You will celebrate in happiness like those who play pipes as they go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 30The Lord will shout so everyone hears him he will reveal his great power. He will hit out in his anger and fury, with a fire that burns everything up, and with torrential rain, storm, and hail. 31At the Lord's command the Assyrians will be shattered, knocked down by his scepter. 32Every time the Lord hits them with his rod of punishment it will be accompanied by the music of tambourines and harps as he fights them, swinging into them in battle. 33The place of burning#30:33. Literally “Topheth,” a place in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. has been prepared a long time ago, ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, and has plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a flood of burning sulfur, sets it on fire.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Isaiah 30
30
Do Not Go Down to Egypt
1“Ah, #[ch. 1:2, 4] stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
# [ch. 29:15] “who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make #ch. 25:7an alliance,#30:1 Hebrew who weave a web but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 # ch. 31:1; 36:6 who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3 # [ver. 7; ch. 20:5] Therefore 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 #See ch. 19:11 Zoan
and #[Ezek. 17:15] his envoys reach #[Jer. 43:7]Hanes,
5everyone comes to shame
through #[ver. 7; Jer. 2:36]a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6An #See ch. 13:1 oracle on #[ch. 51:9; Ps. 68:30] the beasts of #[Acts 8:26] the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the adder and the #[Deut. 8:15]flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7Egypt’s #ch. 36:6 help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her
# ch. 51:9 “Rahab who sits still.”
A Rebellious People
8And now, go, #Hab. 2:2write it before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.#30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever
9 # ver. 1 For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
10 #
Amos 2:12; [Amos 7:12, 13] who say to #See 1 Sam. 9:9 the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us #[1 Kgs. 22:13]; See Jer. 28:1-11; Ezek. 13:8-16smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in #[ch. 5:8, 20]oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
13therefore this iniquity shall be to you
#
Ps. 62:3
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14and its breaking is #Ps. 2:9like that of a potter’s vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard 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 #Hos. 14:1 returning#30:15 Or repentance and #[Ex. 14:14]rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16and you said,
“No! We will flee upon #ch. 31:1, 3; [Hos. 14:3]horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 # [Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30] A 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.
The Lord Will Be Gracious
18Therefore the Lord #[Hab. 2:3] waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he #ch. 5:16 exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
#
Ps. 2:12; 34:8; Prov. 16:20; Jer. 17:7 blessed are all those who wait for him.
19For a people shall dwell #[ch. 14:32]in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20And though the Lord give you the #1 Kgs. 22:27; Ps. 127:2; [Ezek. 4:10, 11] bread of adversity and the #1 Kgs. 22:27; Ps. 127:2; [Ezek. 4:10, 11] water of affliction, #[ch. 3:1, 2]yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21#[Jer. 31:33, 34] And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is #ch. 35:8; [Acts 9:2]the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. #ch. 2:20; 31:7; [Hos. 14:8]You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
23 # [ch. 32:20; Ps. 144:13, 14] And he will give #[Jer. 5:24] rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. #[Ps. 65:13]In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24and #See Gen. 45:6the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25And #[ch. 33:21; Ps. 107:35; Joel 3:18] on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, #ch. 32:19; [ch. 2:15]when the towers fall. 26#ch. 60:19, 20 Moreover, 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 #[Hos. 6:1] the Lord binds up #[ch. 1:5, 6]the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;#30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 # ch. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:8 his breath is #[ch. 8:8; Nah. 1:8] 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 #ch. 37:29a bridle that leads astray.
29You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, #1 Sam. 10:5; 1 Kgs. 1:40 as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to #ch. 2:3 the mountain of the Lord, to #ch. 26:4; 44:8; Deut. 32:18the Rock of Israel. 30And the Lord #Ps. 18:13 will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger #ch. 29:6 and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst #ch. 28:2; [Josh. 10:11]and storm and hailstones. 31The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, #ch. 9:4; [Mic. 6:9]when he strikes with his rod. 32And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them #Ex. 15:1 will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. #ch. 11:15; 19:16; [ch. 2:19]Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33For #2 Kgs. 23:10; Jer. 7:31 a burning place#30:33 Or For Topheth has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, #Ezek. 24:9, 10 its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; #Ps. 18:8; Ezek. 20:48the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
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