Isaiah 30
30
XXX
1Wo unto the rebellious children, saith Jehovah,
Who form counsels, but not from me;
And make oblations, but not by my spirit:
That they may add sin to sin.
2Who set forward to go down to Egypt;
But have not inquired at my mouth:
To strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh;
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt.
3But the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame;
And your trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4When his princes were at Zoan,
And his ambassadors arrived at Hanes:
5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them;
Nor be an help nor profit;
But a shame and also a reproach.
6THE ORACLE CONCERNING THE BEASTS OF THE SOUTH.
Through a land of distress and difficulty,
From whence come the lioness and the lion,
The viper and the flying fiery serpent,
They carry on the shoulder of young asses their wealth;
And on the bunch of the camel their treasures;
To a people that shall not profit them:
7For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose;
Wherefore I have called her, Rahab Hem Shabeth.
8Now, go write it for them on a tablet;
And note it in a book:
That it might be for time to come;
For ever and ever.
9For this is a rebellious people, lying children;
Children, who will not hear the law of Jehovah;
10Who say to the seers, See not;
And to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us rightthings;
Speak unto us smooth things;
Prophesy deceits.
11Get you out of the way,
Turn out of the path;
Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel:
Because ye have rejected this word,
And have trusted in oppression and perverseness;
And have stayed thereon:
13Therefore this iniquity shall be unto you
Like a breach ready to fall, bulging out in a high wall;
Whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14And it shall be broken, as the breaking of a potter's vessel that is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare;
So that there shall not be found a sherd among its fragments,
To take up fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.
15Verily thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest should ye have been saved;
In quietness and in confidence should have been your strength;
But ye would not.
16And ye said: No, for we will flee upon horses;
Therefore shall ye certainly flee:
And, we will ride upon swift coursers;
Therefore shall they be made swift that pursue you.
17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one;
At the rebuke of five shall ye flee:
Till ye be left as a standard on the summit of a mountain;
And as a beacon on an hill.
18And therefore shall Jehovah delay, that he may be gracious unto you;
And therefore shall he withdraw himself that he may have mercy upon you;
For Jehovah is a God of judgment;
Blessed are all they that wait for him.
19Surely the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem:
Thou shalt weep no more:
He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry;
No sooner shall he hear it, than he will answer thee.
20And the Lord shall give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction;
And thy teachers shall not be hid any more;
But thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee,
Saying: This is the way, walk ye in it:
When ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22And ye shall defile the covering of your graven images of silver,
And the clothing of your molten images of gold:
Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth;
Thou shalt say unto them, Begone.
23Then shall he give rain for thy seed,
With which thou shalt sow thy ground,
And bread of the produce of the ground;
And it shall be abundant and plenteous:
And thy cattle shall feed in that day in large pastures.
24And the oxen, and the young asses, that till the ground,
Shall eat clean provender,
Which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25And there shall be upon every high mountain,
And upon every lofty hill,
Brooks, even streams of water,
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 when Jehovah shall bind up the breach of his people;
And shall heal the wound which his stroke hath inflicted.
27Behold! the name of Jehovah cometh from afar,
His wrath burneth, and vehement is the flame;
His lips are full of indignation,
And his tongue is as a consuming fire.
28And his breath is like an overflowing torrent,
That reacheth to the middle of the neck;
To sift the nations with the sieve of destruction:
And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people causing them to err.
29Ye shall have a song, as in the night when the feast
is celebrated;
And gladness of heart, as when one marcheth after the pipe,
To go to the mountain of Jehovah, to the rock of Israel.
30And Jehovah shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,
And make the descending of his arm to be seen,
With indignant wrath, and with a flame of consuming fire;
With a violent storm, and rushing showers, and hailstones.
31When at the voice of Jehovah the Assyrian shall be beaten down,
Then with the rod He shall smite.
32And wherever the appointed rod shall pass,
Which Jehovah shall cause to rest upon him;
It shall be accompanied with tabrets and harps;
And with fierce battles shall He fight against them.
33For Tophet is ordained of old,
Even the same for the king is prepared;
He hath made it deep; he hath made it large;
The pile thereof, fire and wood in abundance:
The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
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Isaiah 30: TEG
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Isaiah 30
30
Oracle on the Futility of an Alliance with Egypt#Several independent oracles against making an alliance with Egypt have been strung together in this chapter: vv. 1–5, vv. 6–7, and vv. 8–17. That these were originally separate oracles is indicated by the fact that the oracle in vv. 6–7 is still introduced by its own heading: Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb.
1Ah! Rebellious children,
oracle of the Lord,
Who carry out a plan that is not mine,
who make an alliance#Make an alliance: lit., “pour out a libation,” namely, as part of the ritual of treaty making. I did not inspire,
thus adding sin upon sin;#Is 1:4; 5:21; 28:15; 29:15.
2They go down to Egypt,
without asking my counsel,#Without asking my counsel: it was a practice to consult God through the prophets or through the priestly oracle before making a major political decision (1 Sm 23:1–12; 1 Kgs 22:5), but Judah’s leadership, in its concern for security, was apparently trying to keep its plan for a treaty with Egypt secret even from the prophets, thus implicitly from God (29:15).
To seek strength in Pharaoh’s protection
and take refuge in Egypt’s shadow.#Is 31:1; 36:6.
3Pharaoh’s protection shall become your shame,
refuge in Egypt’s shadow your disgrace.#Is 20:5; Jer 2:36–37.
4When his princes are at Zoan
and his messengers reach Hanes,#Is 19:11.
5All shall be ashamed
of a people that gain them nothing,
Neither help nor benefit,
but only shame and reproach.#Is 36:6.
6Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb.
Through the distressed and troubled land#Distressed…land: the wilderness between Judah and Egypt, through which Judahite messengers had to pass, carrying their tribute to Egypt to buy assistance in the struggle against Assyria. Flying saraph: see notes on 6:2; 14:29.
of the lioness and roaring lion,
of the viper and flying saraph,
They carry their riches on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
To a people good for nothing,
7to Egypt whose help is futile and vain.
Therefore I call her
“Rahab#Here as elsewhere (cf. Ps 87:4) Egypt is compared to Rahab, the raging, destructive sea monster (cf. Is 51:9; Jb 26:12; Ps 89:11); yet Egypt, when asked for aid by Judah, becomes silent and “sits still.” Sit-still.”
8#Isaiah will write down his condemnation of the foolish policy pursued so that the truth of his warning of its dire consequences (vv. 12–17) may afterward be recognized. Now come, write it on a tablet they can keep,
inscribe it on a scroll;
That in time to come it may be
an eternal witness.#Is 8:1, 16; Jer 36:2; Hb 2:2.
9For this is a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
Children who refuse
to listen to the instruction of the Lord;#Is 1:4; 28:12; Jer 7:28.
10Who say to the seers, “Do not see”;
to the prophets,#Seers…prophets: the two terms are synonyms for prophetic figures such as Isaiah (1:1; 2:1; 6:1, 5). There is wordplay between the nouns and their cognate verbs, both of which mean “to see.” The authorities are depicted as forbidding prophets to contradict their secret political and military policies. “Do not prophesy truth for us;
speak smooth things to us, see visions that deceive!#Is 29:10; Jer 5:31; 11:21; Am 2:12.
11Turn aside from the way! Get out of the path!
Let us hear no more
of the Holy One of Israel!”#Jb 21:14–15.
12Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word,
And put your trust in oppression and deceit,
and depend on them,#Is 28:15; Ps 62:11.
13This iniquity of yours shall be
like a descending rift
Bulging out in a high wall
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant,#Is 28:17; Ez 13:14.
14Crashing like a potter’s jar
smashed beyond rescue,
And among its fragments cannot be found
a sherd to scoop fire from the hearth
or dip water from the cistern.#Jer 19:11.
15For thus said the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
in quiet and in trust shall be your strength.
But this you did not will.#Is 7:4; 8:6; 28:12.
16“No,” you said,
“Upon horses we will flee.”
Very well, you shall flee!
“Upon swift steeds we will ride.”
Very well, swift shall be your pursuers!#Is 31:3.
17A thousand shall tremble at the threat of one—
if five threaten, you shall flee.
You will then be left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a flag on a hill.#Is 11:10; Dt 32:30.
Zion’s Future Deliverance
18Truly, the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you,
truly, he shall rise to show you mercy;
For the Lord is a God of justice:
happy are all who wait for him!#Ex 34:6; Ps 34:9; Jer 17:7.
19Yes, people of Zion, dwelling in Jerusalem,
you shall no longer weep;
He will be most gracious to you when you cry out;
as soon as he hears he will answer you.#Is 25:8; 58:9; 65:24.
20The Lord will give you bread in adversity
and water in affliction.
No longer will your Teacher#Teacher: God, who in the past made the people blind and deaf through the prophetic message (6:9–10) and who in his anger hid his face from the house of Jacob (8:17), shall in the future help them to understand his teaching clearly (cf. Jer 31:34). hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,#Is 6:9–10; 8:17; 29:18.
21And your ears shall hear a word behind you:
“This is the way; walk in it,”
when you would turn to the right or the left.
22You shall defile your silver-plated idols
and your gold-covered images;
You shall throw them away like filthy rags,
you shall say, “Get out!”#Is 2:20; 27:9; 31:7.
23He will give rain for the seed
you sow in the ground,
And the bread that the soil produces
will be rich and abundant.
On that day your cattle will graze
in broad meadows;#Lv 26:3–5.
24The oxen and the donkeys that till the ground
will eat silage tossed to them
with shovel and pitchfork.
25Upon every high mountain and lofty hill
there will be streams of running water.
On the day of the great slaughter,
when the towers fall,
26The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times greater,
like the light of seven days,
On the day the Lord binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the bruises left by his blows.#Is 1:6; Jer 30:17; Hos 6:1.
Divine Judgment on Assyria#God’s punishment of Assyria. The name of the Lord: here, God himself; cf. Ps 20:2.
27See, the name of the Lord is coming from afar,
burning with anger, heavy with threat,
His lips filled with fury,
tongue like a consuming fire,#Is 10:17; 29:6.
28Breath like an overflowing torrent
that reaches up to the neck!
He will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing
and bridle the jaws of the peoples to send them astray.#Is 8:7–8; 37:29.
29For you, there will be singing
as on a night when a feast is observed,
And joy of heart
as when one marches along with a flute
Going to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30The Lord will make his glorious voice heard,
and reveal his arm coming down
In raging fury and flame of consuming fire,
in tempest, and rainstorm, and hail.#Is 10:17; 28:2; 29:6.
31For at the voice of the Lord, Assyria will be shattered,
as he strikes with the rod;
32And every sweep of the rod of his punishment,
which the Lord will bring down on him,
Will be accompanied by timbrels and lyres,
while he wages war against him.#Is 10:24–26; 14:24–27.
33For his tophet#Tophet: a site, near Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed by fire to Molech (2 Kgs 23:10), and where, probably, Ahaz sacrificed his son (2 Kgs 16:3). Here, Isaiah speaks of “his tophet,” the site prepared for burning up the king of Assyria. King: there seems to be a play on words between the Heb. word for king (melek) and the name Molech. This defeat of Assyria becomes the occasion for Israel’s festal rejoicing (v. 32). has long been ready,
truly it is prepared for the king;
His firepit made both deep and wide,
with fire and firewood in abundance,
And the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur,
setting it afire.#Gn 19:24; Ez 38:22.
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