Isaiah 30
30
All Show, No Substance
1-5“Doom, rebel children!”
God’s Decree.
“You make plans, but not mine.
You make deals, but not in my Spirit.
You pile sin on sin,
one sin on top of another,
Going off to Egypt
without so much as asking me,
Running off to Pharaoh for protection,
expecting to hide out in Egypt.
Well, some protection Pharaoh will be!
Some hideout, Egypt!
They look big and important, true,
with officials strategically established in
Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,
but there’s nothing to them.
Anyone stupid enough to trust them
will end up looking stupid—
All show, no substance,
an embarrassing farce.”
6-7And this note on the animals of the Negev
encountered on the road to Egypt:
A most dangerous, treacherous route,
menaced by lions and deadly snakes.
And you’re going to lug all your stuff down there,
your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes,
Thinking you can buy protection
from that hollow farce of a nation?
Egypt is all show, no substance.
My name for her is Toothless Dragon.
This Is a Rebel Generation
8-11So, go now and write all this down.
Put it in a book
So that the record will be there
to instruct the coming generations,
Because this is a rebel generation,
a people who lie,
A people unwilling to listen
to anything God tells them.
They tell their spiritual leaders,
“Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”
They tell their preachers,
“Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better.
Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us.
Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”
12-14Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:
“Because you scorn this Message,
Preferring to live by injustice
and shape your lives on lies,
This perverse way of life
will be like a towering, badly built wall
That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,
and then one day, without warning, collapses—
Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
smashed beyond recognition or repair,
Useless, a pile of debris
to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”
God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right
15-17 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
you’ve been unwilling to do.
You’ve said, ‘No way! We’ll rush off on horseback!’
You’ll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!
You’ve said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses!’
Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?
Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.
Before a mere five you’ll all run off.
There’ll be nothing left of you—
a flagpole on a hill with no flag,
a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off.”
18But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you.
He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you.
God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.
19-22Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”
23-26God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.
* * *
27-28Look, God’s on his way,
and from a long way off!
Smoking with anger,
immense as he comes into view,
Words steaming from his mouth,
searing, indicting words!
A torrent of words, a flash flood of words
sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words.
He’ll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction,
herd them into a dead end.
29-33But you will sing,
sing through an all-night holy feast!
Your hearts will burst with song,
make music like the sound of flutes on parade,
En route to the mountain of God,
on the way to the Rock of Israel.
God will sound out in grandiose thunder,
display his hammering arm,
Furiously angry, showering sparks—
cloudburst, storm, hail!
Oh yes, at God’s thunder
Assyria will cower under the clubbing.
Every blow God lands on them with his club
is in time to the music of drums and pipes,
God in all-out, two-fisted battle,
fighting against them.
Topheth’s fierce fires are well prepared,
ready for the Assyrian king.
The Topheth furnace is deep and wide,
well stoked with hot-burning wood.
God’s breath, like a river of burning pitch,
starts the fire.
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Isaiah 30: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 30
30
Warning against Alliance with Egypt
1“Oh rebellious children!” declares#Literally “declaration of” Yahweh,
“to make a plan, but#Or “and” not from me,
and pour out a libation, but#Or “and” not from my spirit,
so as to add#Literally “for the sake of adding” sin to sin.
2Who go to go down to Egypt,
but#Or “and” they do not ask of my mouth,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
3And the protection of Pharaoh shall be shame to you,
and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, humiliation.
4For his officials are at Zoan,
and his envoys reach to Hanes.
5Everyone will start to stink because of a people that cannot profit them,
not for help and not for profiting,
but for shame and also for disgrace.”
Oracle regarding the Negev
6An oracle of the animals of the Negev:
Through a land of trouble and distress,
of lioness and lion,
among#Literally “from” them are snake and flying serpent;
they carry their wealth on the backs#Literally “shoulder” of male donkeys
and their treasures on the humps#Hebrew “hump” of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7For#Or “And” Egyptians#Literally “Egypt” help with vanity and emptiness,
therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are sitting.”
8Now go, write it on a tablet with them,
and inscribe it on a scroll,
that#Or “and” it may be for the time to come,#Literally “for last day”
forever, forever.
9For it is a people of rebellion, deceitful children,
children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,
10who say to those who do see, “You must not see!”
and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us;
speak smooth things to us,
see illusions,
11turn aside from the way,
turn aside from the path,
put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”
12Therefore the holy one of Israel says this:
“Because you are rejecting this word
and you trust in oppression and cunning#Literally “going wrong”
and you rely on it,
13therefore this iniquity shall come for you like a breach about to fall,
bulging out on a high wall that breaks#Literally “whose breaking comes” suddenly, in an instant.
14And he breaks it like a vessel of a potter#Literally “someone who forms” breaks,
that is crushed; he has no compassion,
and no potsherd is found among its fragments#Hebrew “fragment” to take fire#Literally “for the taking away of fire” from the hearth,
or to skim#Literally “for the skimming off of” water from the cistern.”
15For the Lord Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, said this:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
your strength shall be in quietness and in trust.”
But#Or “And” you were not willing, 16and you said,
“No! For we will flee on horses!”#Hebrew “horse” Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses!”#Hebrew “horse” Therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
17One thousand because of#Literally “from the face of” a threat of one,
because#Literally “from the face” of a threat of five you shall flee,
until you are left like a flagstaff on top#Literally “head” of a mountain,
and like a signal on a hill.
Yahweh Will Show Mercy
18Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy,
for Yahweh is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19For people will live in Zion;
in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep.
Surely he will be gracious to you;
when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.
20And the Lord will give you the bread of distress
and the water of oppression,
but#Or “and” your teachers will not hide themselves#Hebrew “himself” any longer.
And your eyes shall see#Literally “be seeing” your teachers.
21And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying,
“this is the way; walk in it,”
when you go to your right
and when you go to your left.
22And you will defile the plating of your silver idols
and the covering of your gold image.
You will scatter them like contaminated things;#Hebrew “contaminated thing”
you will say to it, “Filth!”#Or “Get out!”
23And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground,
and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fertile.#Literally “fat”
On that day, your cattle will graze in broad pastures;#Hebrew “pasture”
24and the oxen and the donkeys that till#Or “tilling” the ground will eat fodder, sorrel
that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill,
watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.
26And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days,
on the day when Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people,
and he heals the wound of his blow.
Judgment against Assyria
27Look! The name of Yahweh comes from afar,
burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud.
His lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28And his breath is like an overflowing river;
it reaches up to the neck
to shake the nations with the sieve of worthlessness;
and a bridle that leads astray is on the jawbones of the peoples.
29You shall have a song#Literally “There shall be a song for you” as in the night when a holy festival is kept,
and a gladness of heart like one who goes with the flute,
to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel.
30And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard,
and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen,
in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire,
with a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones#Hebrew “stone” of hail.
31Indeed, Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahweh;
he strikes with the rod.
32And every stroke of the staff of foundation#Some translations emend this to “discipline” that Yahweh lays will be on it with timbrels and lyres,
and he will fight against it#The reading tradition (Qere) has “them” with battles of brandishing.
33For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday;
indeed, it is made ready for the king.
He makes its pile of wood deep and wide;
he makes fire and wood abundant.#Literally “numerous”
The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.
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