Study Desk

Woe to the rebellious children!^(a) This is the Lord 's declaration. They carry out a plan,^(b) but not Mine; they make an alliance, but against My will, piling sin on top of sin.

They set out to go down to Egypt^(c) without asking My advice, in order to seek shelter under Pharaoh's protection and take refuge in Egypt's shadow.^(d)

But Pharaoh's protection will become your shame, and refuge in Egypt's shadow your disgrace.^(e)

For though his^[a] princes are at Zoan^(f) and his messengers reach as far as Hanes,

everyone will be ashamed because of a people who can't help. They are of no benefit, they are no help; they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.^(g)

An oracle^(h) about the animals of the Negev:^[b] Through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent,⁽ⁱ⁾ they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not help them.

Egypt's help is completely worthless; therefore, I call her: Rahab Who Just Sits.^(j)

Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the future, forever and ever.

They are a rebellious people, deceptive children,^(k) children who do not want to obey the Lord 's instruction.

They say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy the truth to us. Tell us flattering things.^(l) Prophesy illusions.

Get out of the way! Leave the pathway. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel."^(m)

Therefore the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message and have trusted in oppression and deceit, and have depended on them,

this iniquity⁽ⁿ⁾ of yours will be like a spreading breach, a bulge in a high wall whose collapse will come in an instant—suddenly!

Its collapse will be like the shattering of a potter's jar,^(o) crushed to pieces, so that not even a fragment of pottery will be found among its shattered remains— no fragment large enough to take fire from a hearth or scoop water from a cistern."

For the Lord God , the Holy One of Israel, has said: "You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence. But you are not willing."

You say, "No! We will escape on horses"— therefore you will escape!— and, "We will ride on fast horses"— but those who pursue you will be faster.^(p)

One thousand will flee at the threat of one,^(q) at the threat of five you will flee, until you alone remain like a solitary pole on a mountaintop or a banner on a hill.

Therefore the Lord is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion,^(r) for the Lord is a just God. All who wait patiently for Him are happy.

For you people will live on Zion in Jerusalem and will never cry again. He will show favor to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you.

The Lord will give you meager bread and water during oppression,^(s) but your Teacher^[c] will not hide Himself^[d] any longer. Your eyes will see your Teacher,^[e]

and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: "This is the way. Walk in it."^(t)

Then you will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, and call them filth.

Then He will send rain for your seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.^(u)

The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder scattered with winnowing shovel^(v) and fork.

Streams flowing with water will be on every high mountain and every raised hill on the day of great slaughter when the towers fall.

The moonlight will be as bright as the sunlight, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter^(w)—like the light of seven days—on the day^(x) that the Lord bandages His people's injuries and heals the wounds He inflicted.^(y)

Look, Yahweh^[f] comes from far away, His anger burning and heavy with smoke.^[g] His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

His breath is like an overflowing torrent^(z) that rises to the neck.^(aa) He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction and to put a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.^(ab)

Your singing will be like that on the night of a holy festival, and your heart will rejoice like one who walks to the music of a flute, going up to the mountain of the Lord , to the Rock of Israel.^(ac)

And the Lord will make the splendor of His voice heard and reveal His arm^(ad) striking in angry wrath and a flame of consuming fire, in driving rain, a torrent, and hailstones.

Assyria will be shattered by the voice of the Lord . He will strike with a rod.

And every stroke of the appointed^[h] staff that the Lord brings down on him will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres; He will fight against him with brandished weapons.

Indeed! Topheth has been ready^(ae) for the king for a long time now. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord ,^(af) like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help^(a) and who depend on horses! They trust in the abundance of chariots and in the large number of horsemen.^(b) They do not look^(c) to the Holy One of Israel and they do not seek the Lord 's help.

But He also is wise and brings disaster.^(d) He does not go back on what He says;^(e) He will rise up against the house of wicked men and against the allies of evildoers.

Egyptians 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.

For this is what the Lord said to me: As a lion or young lion growls over its prey^(f) when a band of shepherds is called out against it, and is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their noise, so the Lord of Hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.^(g)

Like hovering birds, so the Lord of Hosts will protect Jerusalem^(h)— by protecting it, He will rescue it, by sparing it, He will deliver it.

Return to the One the Israelites have greatly rebelled against.⁽ⁱ⁾

For on that day, every one of you will reject the silver and gold idols that your own hands have sinfully made.^(j)

Then Assyria will fall, but not by human sword; a sword will devour him, but not one made by man.^(k) He will flee from the sword; his young men will be put to forced labor.^(l)

His rock^[a] will pass away because of fear,^(m) and his officers will be afraid because of the signal flag.⁽ⁿ⁾ This is the Lord 's declaration—whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.^(o)