1“Woe to the rebellious children,”
declares the Lord,
“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,
who form an alliance, but against My will,
heaping up sin upon sin.
2They set out to go down to Egypt
without asking My advice,
to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection
and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
3But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,
and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
4For though their princes are at Zoan
and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5everyone will be put to shame
because of a people useless to them.
They bring neither help nor benefit,
but only shame and disgrace.”
6This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
7Egypt’s help is futile and empty;
therefore I have called her
Rahab Who Sits Still.
8Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence
and inscribe it on a scroll;
it will be for the days to come,
a witness forever and ever.
9These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to obey the Lord’s instruction.
10They say to the seers,
“Stop seeing visions!”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy to us the truth!
Speak to us pleasant words;
prophesy illusions.
11Get out of the way; turn off the road.
Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”
12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
13this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,
a bulge in a high wall,
whose collapse will come suddenly—
in an instant!
14It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,
shattered so that no fragment can be found.
Not a shard will be found in the dust
large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth
or to skim the water from a cistern.”
15For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
16“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”
Therefore you will flee!
“We will ride swift horses,”
but your pursuers will be faster.
17A thousand will flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you will all flee,
until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.
18Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore He rises to show you compassion,
for the Lord is a just God.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.
27Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense smoke.
His lips are full of fury,
and His tongue is like a consuming fire.
28His breath is like a rushing torrent
that rises to the neck.
He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;
He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
29You will sing
as 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.
30And the Lord will cause His majestic voice to be heard
and His mighty arm to be revealed,
striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,
and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
31For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the Lord;
He will strike them with His scepter.
32And with every stroke of the rod of punishment
that the Lord brings down on them,
the tambourines and lyres will sound
as He battles with weapons brandished.
33For Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,
with plenty of fire and wood.
The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.