Isaiah 30

¹Oh, rebellious children, says the Lord,

who carry out a plan, but not mine;

who make an alliance, but against my will,

adding sin to sin;

²who set out to go down to Egypt

without asking for my counsel,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,

and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt;

³Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame,

and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.

⁴For though his officials are at Zoan

and his envoys reach Hanes,

⁵everyone comes to shame

through a people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit,

but shame and disgrace.

Through a land of trouble and distress,

of lioness and roaring lion,

of viper and flying 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.

⁷For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,

therefore I have called her,

“Rahab who sits still.”

⁸Go now, write it before them on a tablet,

and inscribe it in a book,

so that it may be for the time to come

as a witness forever.

⁹For they are a rebellious people,

faithless children,

children who will not hear

the instruction of the Lord;

¹⁰who say to the seers, “Do not see”;

and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us smooth 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 reject this word,

and put your trust in oppression and deceit,

and rely on them;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall become for you

like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,

whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;

¹⁴its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel

that is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a sherd is found

for taking fire from the hearth,

or dipping water out of the cistern.

¹⁵For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

But you refused ¹⁶and said,

“No! We will flee upon horses”—

therefore you shall flee!

and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”—

therefore your pursuers shall be swift!

¹⁷A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,

at the threat of five you shall flee,

until you are left

like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,

like a signal on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

²⁷See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,

burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;

his lips are full of indignation,

and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

²⁸his breath is 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 a bridle that leads them astray.