Isaiah 30-31
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 30
Oracle on the Futility of an Alliance with Egypt[a]
1 Ah! Rebellious children,
oracle of the Lord,
Who carry out a plan that is not mine,
who make an alliance[b] I did not inspire,
thus adding sin upon sin;(A)
2 They go down to Egypt,
without asking my counsel,[c]
To seek strength in Pharaoh’s protection
and take refuge in Egypt’s shadow.(B)
3 Pharaoh’s protection shall become your shame,
refuge in Egypt’s shadow your disgrace.(C)
4 When his princes are at Zoan
and his messengers reach Hanes,(D)
5 All shall be ashamed
of a people that gain them nothing,
Neither help nor benefit,
but only shame and reproach.(E)
6 Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb.
Through the distressed and troubled land[d]
of the lioness and roaring lion,
of the viper and flying saraph,
They carry their riches on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
To a people good for nothing,
7 to Egypt whose help is futile and vain.
Therefore I call her
“Rahab[e] Sit-still.”
8 [f]Now come, write it on a tablet they can keep,
inscribe it on a scroll;
That in time to come it may be
an eternal witness.(F)
9 For this is a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
Children who refuse
to listen to the instruction of the Lord;(G)
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see”;
to the prophets,[g] “Do not prophesy truth for us;
speak smooth things to us, see visions that deceive!(H)
11 Turn aside from the way! Get out of the path!
Let us hear no more
of the Holy One of Israel!”(I)
12 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word,
And put your trust in oppression and deceit,
and depend on them,(J)
13 This iniquity of yours shall be
like a descending rift
Bulging out in a high wall
whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant,(K)
14 Crashing like a potter’s jar
smashed beyond rescue,
And among its fragments cannot be found
a sherd to scoop fire from the hearth
or dip water from the cistern.(L)
15 For thus said the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
in quiet and in trust shall be your strength.
But this you did not will.(M)
16 “No,” you said,
“Upon horses we will flee.”
Very well, you shall flee!
“Upon swift steeds we will ride.”
Very well, swift shall be your pursuers!(N)
17 A thousand shall tremble at the threat of one—
if five threaten, you shall flee.
You will then be left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a flag on a hill.(O)
Zion’s Future Deliverance
18 Truly, the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you,
truly, he shall rise to show you mercy;
For the Lord is a God of justice:
happy are all who wait for him!(P)
19 Yes, people of Zion, dwelling in Jerusalem,
you shall no longer weep;
He will be most gracious to you when you cry out;
as soon as he hears he will answer you.(Q)
20 The Lord will give you bread in adversity
and water in affliction.
No longer will your Teacher[h] hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,(R)
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you:
“This is the way; walk in it,”
when you would turn to the right or the left.
22 You shall defile your silver-plated idols
and your gold-covered images;
You shall throw them away like filthy rags,
you shall say, “Get out!”(S)
23 He will give rain for the seed
you sow in the ground,
And the bread that the soil produces
will be rich and abundant.
On that day your cattle will graze
in broad meadows;(T)
24 The oxen and the donkeys that till the ground
will eat silage tossed to them
with shovel and pitchfork.
25 Upon every high mountain and lofty hill
there will be streams of running water.
On the day of the great slaughter,
when the towers fall,
26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be seven times greater,
like the light of seven days,
On the day the Lord binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the bruises left by his blows.(U)
Divine Judgment on Assyria[i]
27 See, the name of the Lord is coming from afar,
burning with anger, heavy with threat,
His lips filled with fury,
tongue like a consuming fire,(V)
28 Breath like an overflowing torrent
that reaches up to the neck!
He will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing
and bridle the jaws of the peoples to send them astray.(W)
29 For you, there will be singing
as on a night when a feast is observed,
And joy of heart
as when one marches along with a flute
Going to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will make his glorious voice heard,
and reveal his arm coming down
In raging fury and flame of consuming fire,
in tempest, and rainstorm, and hail.(X)
31 For at the voice of the Lord, Assyria will be shattered,
as he strikes with the rod;
32 And every sweep of the rod of his punishment,
which the Lord will bring down on him,
Will be accompanied by timbrels and lyres,
while he wages war against him.(Y)
33 For his tophet[j] has long been ready,
truly it is prepared for the king;
His firepit made both deep and wide,
with fire and firewood in abundance,
And the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur,
setting it afire.(Z)
Chapter 31
Against the Egyptian Alliance
1 Ah! Those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses;
Who put their trust in chariots because of their number,
and in horsemen because of their combined power,
But look not to the Holy One of Israel
nor seek the Lord
2 Yet he too is wise and will bring disaster;
he will not turn from his threats.
He will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against those who help evildoers.(AB)
3 The Egyptians are human beings, not God,
their horses flesh, not spirit;
When the Lord stretches forth his hand,
the helper shall stumble, the one helped shall fall,
and both of them shall perish together.(AC)
4 For thus says the Lord to me:
As a lion or its young
growling over the prey,
With a band of shepherds
assembled against it,
Is neither dismayed by their shouts
nor cowed by their noise,
So shall the Lord of hosts come down
to wage war upon Mount Zion, upon its height.(AD)
5 Like hovering birds, so the Lord of hosts
shall shield Jerusalem,
To shield and deliver,
to spare and rescue.(AE)
6 Return, O Israelites, to him whom you have utterly deserted.(AF) 7 On that day each one of you shall reject his idols of silver and gold, which your hands have made.(AG)
8 Assyria shall fall by a sword, not wielded by human being,
no mortal sword shall devour him;
He shall flee before the sword,
and his young men shall be impressed as laborers.(AH)
9 He shall rush past his crag[l] in panic,
and his princes desert the standard in terror,
Says the Lord who has a fire in Zion
and a furnace in Jerusalem.(AI)
Footnotes
- 30:1–17 Several independent oracles against making an alliance with Egypt have been strung together in this chapter: vv. 1–5, vv. 6–7, and vv. 8–17. That these were originally separate oracles is indicated by the fact that the oracle in vv. 6–7 is still introduced by its own heading: Oracle on the Beasts of the Negeb.
- 30:1 Make an alliance: lit., “pour out a libation,” namely, as part of the ritual of treaty making.
- 30:2 Without asking my counsel: it was a practice to consult God through the prophets or through the priestly oracle before making a major political decision (1 Sm 23:1–12; 1 Kgs 22:5), but Judah’s leadership, in its concern for security, was apparently trying to keep its plan for a treaty with Egypt secret even from the prophets, thus implicitly from God (29:15).
- 30:6 Distressed…land: the wilderness between Judah and Egypt, through which Judahite messengers had to pass, carrying their tribute to Egypt to buy assistance in the struggle against Assyria. Flying saraph: see notes on 6:2; 14:29.
- 30:7 Here as elsewhere (cf. Ps 87:4) Egypt is compared to Rahab, the raging, destructive sea monster (cf. Is 51:9; Jb 26:12; Ps 89:11); yet Egypt, when asked for aid by Judah, becomes silent and “sits still.”
- 30:8 Isaiah will write down his condemnation of the foolish policy pursued so that the truth of his warning of its dire consequences (vv. 12–17) may afterward be recognized.
- 30:10 Seers…prophets: the two terms are synonyms for prophetic figures such as Isaiah (1:1; 2:1; 6:1, 5). There is wordplay between the nouns and their cognate verbs, both of which mean “to see.” The authorities are depicted as forbidding prophets to contradict their secret political and military policies.
- 30:20 Teacher: God, who in the past made the people blind and deaf through the prophetic message (6:9–10) and who in his anger hid his face from the house of Jacob (8:17), shall in the future help them to understand his teaching clearly (cf. Jer 31:34).
- 30:27–33 God’s punishment of Assyria. The name of the Lord: here, God himself; cf. Ps 20:2.
- 30:33 Tophet: a site, near Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed by fire to Molech (2 Kgs 23:10), and where, probably, Ahaz sacrificed his son (2 Kgs 16:3). Here, Isaiah speaks of “his tophet,” the site prepared for burning up the king of Assyria. King: there seems to be a play on words between the Heb. word for king (melek) and the name Molech. This defeat of Assyria becomes the occasion for Israel’s festal rejoicing (v. 32).
- 31:1 Seek the Lord: a technical expression for seeking a prophetic or priestly oracle, similar to the expression “asking my counsel” in 30:2. The prophet complains that Judah has decided on its policy of alliance with Egypt without first consulting the Lord.
- 31:9 Crag: the king as the rallying point of the princes. Panic: terror is an element of Israel’s holy war tradition, in which defeat of the enemy is accomplished by the Lord rather than by human means (cf. v. 8).
Wisdom 19:1-12
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 19
1 But merciless wrath assailed the wicked until the end,
for God knew beforehand what they were yet to do:(A)
2 That though they themselves had agreed to the departure
and had anxiously sent them on their way,
they would regret it and pursue them.(B)
3 For while they were still engaged in funeral rites
and mourning at the burials of the dead,
They adopted another senseless plan:
those whom they had driven out with entreaties
they now pursued as fugitives.(C)
4 For a compulsion appropriate to this ending drew them on,
and made them forget what had befallen them,
That they might complete the torments of their punishment,
5 and your people might experience a glorious[a] journey
while those others met an extraordinary death.
6 [b]For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew,
serving your commands, that your children might be preserved unharmed.(D)
7 The cloud overshadowed their camp;
and out of what had been water, dry land was seen emerging:
Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road,
and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood.(E)
8 Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand,
and they beheld stupendous wonders.
9 For they ranged about like horses,
and leapt like lambs,
praising you, Lord, their deliverer.(F)
10 For they were still mindful of what had happened in their sojourn:
how instead of the young of animals the land brought forth gnats,
and instead of fishes the river swarmed with countless frogs.(G)
11 And later they saw also a new kind of bird(H)
when, prompted by desire, they asked for pleasant foods;
12 For to appease them quail came to them from the sea.
1 Peter 5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 5
Advice to Presbyters.[a] 1 So I exhort the presbyters[b] among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. 2 Tend the flock of God in your midst, [overseeing] not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.(A) 3 Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock. 4 (B)And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.[c]
Advice to the Community.[d] 5 Likewise, you younger members,[e] be subject to the presbyters. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for:
“God opposes the proud
but bestows favor on the humble.”(C)
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.(D) 7 Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.(E)
8 Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour.(F) 9 Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. 10 The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ [Jesus] will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.(G) 11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.
V. Conclusion
12 I write you this briefly through Silvanus,[f] whom I consider a faithful brother, exhorting you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Remain firm in it. 13 The chosen one[g] at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with a loving kiss. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.(H)
Footnotes
- 5:1–4 In imitation of Christ, the chief shepherd, those entrusted with a pastoral office are to tend the flock by their care and example.
- 5:1 Presbyters: the officially appointed leaders and teachers of the Christian community (cf. 1 Tm 5:17–18; Ti 1:5–8; Jas 5:14).
- 5:4 See note on 1 Pt 2:25.
- 5:5–11 The community is to be subject to the presbyters and to show humility toward one another and trust in God’s love and care (1 Pt 5:5–7). With sobriety, alertness, and steadfast faith they must resist the evil one; their sufferings are shared with Christians everywhere (1 Pt 5:8–9). They will be strengthened and called to eternal glory (1 Pt 5:10–11).
- 5:5 Younger members: this may be a designation for office-holders of lesser rank.
- 5:12 Silvanus: the companion of Paul (see 2 Cor 1:19; 1 Thes 1:1; 2 Thes 1:1). Jews and Jewish Christians, like Paul, often had a Hebrew name (Saoul, Silas) and a Greek or Latin name (Paul, Silvanus). On Silvanus’s possible role as amanuensis, see Introduction.
- 5:13 The chosen one: feminine, referring to the Christian community (ekklēsia) at Babylon, the code name for Rome in Rev 14:8; 17:5; 18:2. Mark, my son: traditionally a prominent disciple of Peter and co-worker at the church in Rome, perhaps the John Mark referred to in Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; and in Acts 15:37–39, a companion of Barnabas. Perhaps this is the same Mark mentioned as Barnabas’s cousin in Col 4:10, a co-worker with Paul in Phlm 24 (see also 2 Tm 4:11).
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.