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IsaiahChapter 30

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Woe to the rebellious children, declares the LORD, who carry out plans that are not mine, who forge alliances without my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin.
They go down to Egypt without asking my counsel, seeking refuge in Pharaoh's stronghold, shelter in Egypt's shadow.
But Pharaoh's stronghold will bring you shame, and Egypt's shadow nothing but disgrace.
Though his officials are in Zoan and his envoys reach as far as Hanes,
they will all be put to shame because of a people who cannot help them, who bring no aid and no advantage, only shame and reproach.
An oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and distress, where lioness and lion prowl, where viper and darting serpent dwell, they carry their wealth on the shoulders of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot help.
Egypt's help is worthless and empty. That is why I have called her Rahab who sits idle.
Now go, write it on a tablet before them, inscribe it in a book, that it may stand for the days to come, a witness forever.
For they are a defiant people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD.
They say to the seers, "See nothing," and to the prophets, "Do not tell us what is right. Speak to us smooth words; prophesy illusions.
"Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, and let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel."
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: Because you have rejected this word and trusted instead in oppression and deceit, leaning on them for support,
this guilt of yours will be like a bulging crack in a high wall, ready to fall, whose collapse comes suddenly, in an instant.
It will shatter like a potter's jar, smashed so ruthlessly that no fragment is left big enough to carry coals from a hearth or to scoop water from a cistern.
For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says: In returning and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust will be your strength. But you were not willing.
You said, "No, we will flee on horses" — therefore you will flee! — "we will ride swift steeds" — therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand of you will run from the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all take flight, until you are left like a flagpole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
Yet the LORD waits to show you grace; he rises up to have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.
People of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you when you cry for help; the moment he hears, he will answer you.
Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your Teacher will hide himself no longer; with your own eyes you will see your Teacher.
And your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
Then you will treat as filth your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered images. You will throw them away like a defiled rag and say, "Be gone!"
He will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the soil, rich and abundant. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures.
The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
On every high mountain and every lofty hill there will be streams of running water, on the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people and heals the bruises he has inflicted.
See, the name of the LORD comes from far away, his anger burning, his burden heavy. His lips are full of fury, and his tongue is a devouring fire.
His breath is like a raging torrent that rises to the neck, sifting the nations in the sieve of destruction, setting in the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.
But you will sing as on the night of a holy festival, and your hearts will be glad, like those who march to the music of the flute up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
The LORD will make his majestic voice heard and show his arm coming down — with raging anger and devouring flame, with cloudburst and downpour and hailstones.
At the voice of the LORD, Assyria will be shattered; he will strike her down with his rod.
Every stroke of the punishing staff that the LORD lays upon her will come to the beat of tambourines and lyres; with brandished arm he will fight against them.
For Topheth has long been prepared, made ready for the king, deep and wide, its fire pit piled high with fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, will set it ablaze. [Footnote: Topheth was a burning place in the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem; the Hebrew for "the king" also echoes the name Molech.]
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