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¹ WOE to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not of me; and who offer wine offerings, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin;² Who start to go down to Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, to strengthen themselves by the strength of Pharaoh, and to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt!³ Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be to your shame, and the shelter of the shadow of Egypt to your confusion.⁴ For while Pharaoh is in Zoan, his princes and ambassadors shall act deceitfully.⁵ They go to a people that cannot profit them, neither be a help nor a profit, but shame and reproach.⁶ The prophecy concerning the oppressors of the south: Into a land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lion and the young lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the backs of young asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.⁷ For the Egyptians shall help in vain and in falsehood; therefore I have warned them, for this their trust is in vain.

⁸ Now come, write it on these tablets and on the book of their covenant, that it may be for the time to come, for a testimony for ever and ever;⁹ For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD;¹⁰ Who have said to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us reproof; speak to us deception, prophesy lies;¹¹ Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.¹² Therefore thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel: Because you have despised this word and trusted in oppression and have complained and yet trusted in it;¹³ Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall and as a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.¹⁴ And its breaking is as the breaking of the potters vessel that is broken in pieces, without pity; so that there shall not be found in its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water with it out of the cistern.¹⁵ Therefore thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel: When you will repent and rest you will be saved; in quietness and in hope shall be your strength; but you would not listen.¹⁶ But you said, Not so, for we will ride upon horses, and will flee upon swift ones; therefore you shall flee, and your pursuers shall be swift.¹⁷ A thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee till you are left as a beacon on the top of a mountain and as an ensign on a hill.

¹⁸ Therefore the LORD will begin to be gracious to you, and therefore he will be exalted that he may have mercy upon you; for the LORD is a God of judgment; blessed are all those who wait for him.¹⁹ For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.²⁰ And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet he will not gather any more those who have caused you to err, and your eyes shall see the misfortune of those who have caused you to err;²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, and do not turn aside, either to the right hand or to the left.²² And you shall defile the silver which is overlaid on your idols, and the ornament of your molten images of gold; you shall cast them away like unclean water of a menstrous woman; and you shall take them outside like rubbish.²³ Then he shall give rain to your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and grain of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fertile and plentiful; on that day shall your cattle graze in rich pastures.²⁴ The oxen and the young bullocks that till the ground shall eat clean provender which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.²⁵ And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, flowing streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall.²⁶ Moreover 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 the LORD binds up the breach of his people and heals the pain of their wound.

²⁷ Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, his wrath burns and his train is glorious; his lips are full of indignation and his tongue as a devouring fire;²⁸ And his breath as an overflowing torrent shall reach up to the neck to confuse the nations because of their erring vanity, and because of the bridle which is in the jaws of the nations, which causes them to err.²⁹ You shall have a song, even a garland which is sanctified in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one walks rejoicing to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.³⁰ And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the striking of his arm with the indignation of his anger and with the flame of a devouring fire, with the rainstorm and tempest and hailstones.³¹ For from before the excellency of the LORD shall the Assyrian be defeated and smitten with a rod.³² And in all his works, the staff of affliction which the LORD shall lay upon him shall be with tabrets and harps; and with a fierce battle he shall fight against him.³³ For he has prepared his punishment of old; yea, it is prepared to be executed; he has made it deep and large in his dwelling place; the wood and the fire are plentiful; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it.