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
XXXI
1Wo unto them that go down to Egypt for help,
And fix their stay on horses;
And rely on chariots, because they are many;
And on horsemen, because they are very strong;
But look not unto the Holy One of Israel,
And resort not to Jehovah.
2Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil;
And He will not set aside his word:
But will arise against the house of evil-doers;
And against the help of them that work iniquity.
3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit:
And Jehovah shall stretch forth his hand;
And the helper shall stumble, and the holpen shall fall down;
And they all shall fail together.
4For thus hath Jehovah said unto me:
Like as a lion growleth,
Even the young lion, over his prey:
When a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him,
He will not be terrified at their voice,
Nor will he be humbled at their tumult:
So shall Jehovah of hosts descend to fight
For mount Zion; and for the hill thereof.
5As birds hover over their young,
So shall Jehovah of hosts protect Jerusalem;
Protecting and delivering, sparing and rescuing her.
6Return unto him, from whom ye have deeply revolted,
O ye sons of Israel!
7Surely, in that day shall they cast away with contempt,
Every man his idols of silver, and his idols of gold;
Which your own hands have made unto you for sin.
8And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of man;
Yea a sword not of mortal shall devour him:
And he shall flee from the face of the sword,
And his choice youths shall become tributaries.
9And for terror he shall pass by his strong hold,
And his princes shall be dismayed at the standard:
Saith Jehovah, who hath his fire in Zion,
And his furnace at Jerusalem.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.