Isaiah 30:27-31:9

New King James Version

Judgment on Assyria

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
²⁸^(A)His breath is like an overflowing stream,
^(B)Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;
And there shall be ^(C)a bridle in the jaws of the people,
Causing them to err.

²⁹You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into ^(D)the mountain of the Lord,
To ^[a]the Mighty One of Israel.
³⁰^(E)The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, ^(F)and hailstones.
³¹For ^(G)through the voice of the Lord
Assyria will be ^[b]beaten down,
As He strikes with the ^(H)rod.
³²And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the Lord lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of ^(I)brandishing He will fight with it.
³³^(J)For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.

The Folly of Not Trusting God

31 Woe to those ^(K)who go down to Egypt for help,
And ^(L)rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
^(M)Nor seek the Lord!
²Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And ^(N)will not ^[c]call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish ^(O)together.

God Will Deliver Jerusalem

⁴For thus the Lord has spoken to me:

^(P)“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the Lord of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
⁵^(Q)Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have ^(R)deeply revolted. ⁷For in that day every man shall ^(S)throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—^(T)sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸“Then Assyria shall ^(U)fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall ^(V)devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
⁹^(W)He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the Lord,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.