Isaiah

The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 30, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 30 New English Translation

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

   1 "The rebellious children are as good as dead," says the LORD, "those who make plans without consulting me, who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, and thereby compound their sin.
   2 They travel down to Egypt without seeking my will, seeking Pharaoh's protection, and looking for safety in Egypt's protective shade.
   3 But Pharaoh's protection will bring you nothing but shame, and the safety of Egypt's protective shade nothing but humiliation.
   4 Though his officials are in Zoan and his messengers arrive at Hanes,
   5 all will be put to shame because of a nation that cannot help them, who cannot give them aid or help, but only shame and disgrace."
   6 This is a message about the animals in the Negev: Through a land of distress and danger, inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, by snakes and darting adders, they transport their wealth on the backs of donkeys, their riches on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot help them.
   7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. For this reason I call her 'Proud one who is silenced.'"
   8 Now go, write it down on a tablet in their presence, inscribe it on a scroll, so that it might be preserved for a future time as an enduring witness.
   9 For these are rebellious people - they are lying children, children unwilling to obey the LORD's law.
   10 They say to the visionaries, "See no more visions!" and to the seers, "Don't relate messages to us about what is right! Tell us nice things, relate deceptive messages.
   11 Turn aside from the way, stray off the path. Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel."
   12 For this reason this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "You have rejected this message; you trust instead in your ability to oppress and trick, and rely on that kind of behavior.
   13 So this sin will become your downfall. You will be like a high wall that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse; it crumbles suddenly, in a flash.
   14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough to scoop a hot coal from a fire or to skim off water from a cistern."
   15 For this is what the master, the LORD, the Holy One of Israel says: "If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered; if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength, but you are unwilling.
   16 You say, 'No, we will flee on horses,' so you will indeed flee. You say, 'We will ride on fast horses,' so your pursuers will be fast.
   17 One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, until the remaining few are as isolated as a flagpole on a mountaintop or a signal flag on a hill."

The LORD Will Not Abandon His People

   18 For this reason the LORD is ready to show you mercy; he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. Indeed, the LORD is a just God; all who wait for him in faith will be blessed.
   19 For people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem you will weep no more. When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy; when he hears it, he will respond to you.
   20 The sovereign master will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them.
   21 You will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, "This is the correct way, walk in it," whether you are heading to the right or the left.
   22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag, saying to them, "Get out!"
   23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground, and the ground will produce crops in abundance. At that time your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
   24 The oxen and donkeys used in plowing will eat seasoned feed winnowed with a shovel and pitchfork.
   25 On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.
   26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun's glare and the sun's glare will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, when the LORD binds up his people's fractured bones and heals their severe wound.
   27 Look, the name of the LORD comes from a distant place in raging anger and awesome splendor. He speaks angrily and his word is like destructive fire.
   28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river that reaches one's neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction.
   29 You will sing as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival. You will be happy like one who plays a flute as he goes to the mountain of the LORD, the Rock who shelters Israel.
   30 The LORD will give a mighty shout and intervene in power, with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.
   31 Indeed, the LORD's shout will shatter Assyria; he will beat them with a club.
   32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, with which the LORD will beat them, will be accompanied by music from the tambourine and harp, and he will attack them with his weapons.
   33 For the burial place is already prepared; it has been made deep and wide for the king. The firewood is piled high on it. The LORD's breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone, will ignite it.

King James Version

   1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
   2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
   3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
   4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
   5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
   6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
   7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
   8 ¶ Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
   9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
   10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
   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 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
   13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
   14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
   15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
   16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
   17 One 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 an ensign on an hill.
   18 ¶ And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
   19 For 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; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
   20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
   21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
   22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
   23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
   24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
   25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and 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 bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
   27 ¶ Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
   28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
   29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into 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 shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
   31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
   32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
   33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.