Isaiah 31
31
Impressed by Military Mathematics
1-3Doom to those who go off to Egypt
thinking that horses can help them,
Impressed by military mathematics,
awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—
And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,
not so much as a prayer to God.
Still, he must be reckoned with,
a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.
He can call down catastrophe.
He’s a God who does what he says.
He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,
stands up against interfering evildoers.
Egyptians are mortal, not God,
and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.
When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike
will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.
* * *
4-5This is what God told me:
“Like a lion, king of the beasts,
that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,
Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds
who arrive to chase it off,
So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down
to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,
God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.
I’ll protect and rescue it.
Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”
6-7Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. On the day you return, you’ll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.
8-9“Assyrians will fall dead,
killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,
laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.
Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,
and their prize young men made slaves.
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,
their leaders scatter hysterically.”
God’s Decree on Assyria.
His fire blazes in Zion,
his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.
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Isaiah 31: 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 31
31
The Lord, the Only Help
1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help#Is 30:2,7; 36:6
and who depend on horses!
They trust in the abundance of chariots
and in the large number of horsemen.#Dt 17:16; Ps 20:7; 33:17; Is 2:7; 30:16; 36:9
They do not look#Is 9:13; 17:7–8; Dn 9:13; Am 5:4–8 to the Holy One of Israel,
and they do not seek the Lord.
2But he also is wise and brings disaster.#Is 45:7
He does not go back on what he says;#Nm 23:19; Is 22:14; Jr 44:29
he will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against the allies of evildoers.
3Egyptians are men, not God;
their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord raises his hand to strike,
the helper will stumble
and the one who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.
4For this is what the Lord said to me:
As a lion or young lion growls over its prey#Nm 24:9; Hs 11:10; Am 3:8
when a band of shepherds is called out against it,
and it is not terrified by their shouting
or subdued by their noise,
so the Lord of Armies will come down
to fight on Mount Zion
and on its hill.#Is 42:13; Zch 12:8
5Like hovering birds,
so the Lord of Armies will protect Jerusalem;#Dt 32:11; Ps 91:4
by protecting it, he will rescue it;
by passing over it, he will deliver it.
6Return to the one the Israelites have greatly rebelled against.#Is 1:5; 59:13 7For on that day, every one of you will reject the worthless idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.#Is 2:20; 30:22
8Then Assyria will fall,
but not by human sword;
a sword will devour him,
but not one made by man.#Is 37:7,36–38
He will flee from the sword;
his young men will be put to forced labor.#Gn 49:15; Is 14:2
9His rock#31:9 Perhaps the Assyrian king will pass away because of fear,#Dt 32:31,37
and his officers will be afraid because of the signal flag.#Is 5:26; 13:2; Jr 4:6,21; 51:12,27
This is the Lord’s declaration — whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.#Lv 10:2; Is 10:17; 30:33
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