30 Oh, rebellious children, says the Lord,
who carry out a plan, but not mine;
who make an alliance, but against my will,
    adding sin to sin;
² who set out to go down to Egypt
    without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt;
³ Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame,
    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.
⁴ For though his officials are at Zoan
    and his envoys reach Hanes,
⁵ everyone comes to shame
    through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
    but shame and disgrace.

Through a land of trouble and distress,
    of lioness and roaring^[a] lion,
    of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
    and their treasures on the humps of camels,
    to a people that cannot profit them.
⁷ For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,
    therefore I have called her,
    “Rahab who sits still.”^[b]

⁸ Go now, write it before them on a tablet,
    and inscribe it in a book,
so that it may be for the time to come
    as a witness forever.
⁹ For they are a rebellious people,
    faithless children,
children who will not hear
    the instruction of the Lord;
¹⁰ who say to the seers, “Do not see”;
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
¹¹ leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word,
    and put your trust in oppression and deceit,
    and rely on them;
¹³ therefore this iniquity shall become for you
    like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
    whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
¹⁴ its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
    that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
    for taking fire from the hearth,
    or dipping water out of the cistern.

¹⁸ Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

²⁷ See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;^[c]
his lips are full of indignation,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
²⁸ his breath is like an overflowing stream
    that reaches up to the neck—
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
    and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.

31 Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help
    and who rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the Lord!
² Yet he too is wise and brings disaster;
    he does not call back his words,
but will rise against the house of the evildoers,
    and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
³ The Egyptians are human, and not God;
    their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
    the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,
    and they will all perish together.

⁸ “Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of mortals;
    and a sword, not of humans, shall devour him;
he shall flee from the sword,
    and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
⁹ His rock shall pass away in terror,
    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
    and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

19 But the ungodly were assailed to the end by pitiless anger,
for God^[a] knew in advance even their future actions:
² how, though they themselves had permitted^[b] your people to depart
and hastily sent them out,
they would change their minds and pursue them.
³ For while they were still engaged in mourning,
and were lamenting at the graves of their dead,
they reached another foolish decision,
and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged and compelled to leave.
⁴ For the fate they deserved drew them on to this end,
and made them forget what had happened,
in order that they might fill up the punishment that their torments still lacked,
⁵ and that your people might experience^[c] an incredible journey,
but they themselves might meet a strange death.

⁶ For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew,
complying with your commands,
so that your children^[d] might be kept unharmed.
⁷ The cloud was seen overshadowing the camp,
and dry land emerging where water had stood before,
an unhindered way out of the Red Sea,
and a grassy plain out of the raging waves,
⁸ where those protected by your hand passed through as one nation,
after gazing on marvelous wonders.
⁹ For they ranged like horses,
and leaped like lambs,
praising you, O Lord, who delivered them.
¹⁰ For they still recalled the events of their sojourn,
how instead of producing animals the earth brought forth gnats,
and instead of fish the river spewed out vast numbers of frogs.
¹¹ Afterward they saw also a new kind^[e] of birds,
when desire led them to ask for luxurious food;
¹² for, to give them relief, quails came up from the sea.

“God opposes the proud,
    but gives grace to the humble.”