Isaiah 30-32

Isaiah 30

¹Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, who take counsel, but not of me, and who make leagues, but not by my Spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin;

²who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked of my mouth, -- to take refuge under the protection of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt!

³For to you the protection of Pharaoh shall be a shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt a confusion.

⁴For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

⁵They were all ashamed of a people that did not profit them, nor were a help or profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

⁶-- The burden of the beasts of the south: Through a land of trouble and anguish, whence come the lioness and lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to the people that shall not profit them.

⁷For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I named her, Arrogance, that doeth nothing.

⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and record it in a book, that it may be for the time to come, as a witness for ever,

⁹that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Jehovah;

¹⁰who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits;

¹¹get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us!

¹²Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because ye reject this word, and confide in oppression and wilfulness, and depend thereon,

¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a towering wall, whose breaking shall come suddenly in an instant.

¹⁴And he shall break it as the breaking of a potter's vessel, that is broken in pieces unsparingly; and in the pieces of it there shall not be found a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to scoop water out of the cistern.

¹⁵For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; but ye would not.

¹⁶And ye said, No, but we will flee upon horses, -- therefore shall ye flee; and, We will ride upon the swift, -- therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

¹⁷One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as a banner on a hill.

¹⁸And therefore will Jehovah wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he lift himself up, that he may have mercy upon you; for Jehovah is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

¹⁹For 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; as he heareth it, he will answer thee.

²⁰And the Lord will give you the bread of adversity, and the water of oppression; yet thy teachers shall not be hidden any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers.

²¹And when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left, thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.

²²And ye shall defile the silver covering of your graven images, and the gold overlaying of your molten images; thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth: Out! shalt thou say unto it.

²³And he will give the rain of thy seed with which thou shalt sow the ground; and bread, the produce of the ground, and it shall be fat and rich. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures;

²⁴and the oxen and the asses that till the ground shall eat salted provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

²⁵And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every hill that is lifted up, brooks and water-courses, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶And 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 that Jehovah bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the wound of their stroke.

²⁷Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning with his anger -- a grievous conflagration; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a consuming fire;

²⁸and his breath as an overflowing torrent, which reacheth even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to put a bridle into the jaws of the peoples, that causeth them to go astray.

²⁹Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a feast is sanctified; and joy of heart, as of one who goeth with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰And Jehovah will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and will shew the lighting down of his arm with indignation of anger, and a flame of consuming fire, with waterflood and storm and hailstones.

³¹For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be broken down: he will smite him with the rod.

³²And wherever shall pass the appointed staff, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, it shall be with tambours and harps; and with tumultuous battles will he fight with it.

³³For Topheth is prepared of old; for the king also it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large; its pile is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Isaiah 31

¹Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and depend on horses, and confide in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong; and who look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah!

²But he also is wise, and he bringeth evil, and recalleth not his words; and he will arise against the house of evildoers, and against the help of workers of iniquity.

³And the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit; and Jehovah shall stretch forth his hand, and he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped shall fall, and they all shall perish together.

⁴For thus hath Jehovah said unto me: Like as the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, is not afraid of their voice, nor giveth way before the multitude of them; so will Jehovah of hosts come down to war upon mount Zion, and on the hill thereof.

⁵As birds with outstretched wings, so will Jehovah of hosts cover Jerusalem; covering, he will also deliver, passing over, he will rescue it.

⁶Turn unto him from whom ye have deeply revolted, ye children of Israel;

⁷for in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your sinful hands have made unto you.

⁸And Asshur shall fall by the sword, not of a great man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become tributary;

⁹and for fear, he shall pass over to his rock, and his princes shall be afraid of the banner, saith Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 32

¹Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.

²And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the storm; as brooks of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

³And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken;

⁴and the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The vile man shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said to be bountiful:

⁶for the vile man will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the meek with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

⁸But the noble deviseth noble things; and to noble things doth he stand.

⁹Rise up, ye women that are at ease, hear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech.

¹⁰In a year and some days shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.

¹¹Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth on your loins!

¹²They shall smite on the breasts in lamentation for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vineyards.

¹³Upon the land of my people shall come up thistles and briars, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

¹⁴For the palace shall be deserted, the multitude of the city shall be forsaken; hill and watchtower shall be caves for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.

¹⁶And judgment shall inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness dwell in the fruitful field.

¹⁷And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.

¹⁸And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.

¹⁹And it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

²⁰Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.