Isaiah 30
Lexham English Bible
Warning against Alliance with Egypt
30 “Oh rebellious children!” declares[a] Yahweh,
“to make a plan, but[b] not from me,
and pour out a libation, but[c] not from my Spirit,
so as to add[d] sin to sin.
2 Who go to go down to Egypt,
but[e] they do not ask of my mouth,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
3 And the protection of Pharaoh shall be shame to you,
and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt, humiliation.
4 For his officials are at Zoan,
and his envoys reach to Hanes.
5 Everyone will start to stink because of a people that cannot profit them,
not for help and not for profiting,
but for shame and also for disgrace.”
Oracle regarding the Negev
6 An oracle of the animals of the Negev:
Through a land of trouble and distress,
of lioness and lion,
among[f] them are snake and flying serpent;
they carry their wealth on the backs[g] of male donkeys
and their treasures on the humps[h] of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7 For[i] Egyptians[j] help with vanity and emptiness,
therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are sitting.”
8 Now go, write it on a tablet with them,
and inscribe it on a scroll,
that[k] it may be for the time to come,[l]
forever, forever.
9 For it is a people of rebellion, deceitful children,
children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,
10 who say to those who do see, “You must not see!”
and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us;
speak smooth things to us,
see illusions,
11 turn aside from the way, turn aside from the path,
put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”
12 Therefore the holy one of Israel says this:
“Because you are rejecting this word
and you trust in oppression and cunning[m]
and you rely on it,
13 therefore this iniquity shall come for you like a breach about to fall,
bulging out on a high wall that breaks[n] suddenly, in an instant.
14 And he breaks it like a vessel of a potter[o] breaks,
that is crushed; he has no compassion,
and no potsherd is found among its fragments[p] to take fire[q] from the hearth,
or to skim[r] water from the cistern.”
15 For the Lord Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, said this:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
your strength shall be in quietness and in trust.”
But[s] you were not willing, 16 and you said,
“No! For we will flee on horses!”[t] Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses!”[u] Therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
17 One thousand because of[v] a threat of one,
because[w] of a threat of five you shall flee,
until you are left like a flagstaff on top[x] of a mountain,
and like a signal on a hill.
Yahweh Will Show Mercy
18 Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy,
for Yahweh is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For people will live in Zion;
in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep.
Surely he will be gracious to you;
when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.
20 And the Lord will give you the bread of distress
and the water of oppression,
but[y] your teachers will not hide themselves[z] any longer.
And your eyes shall see[aa] your teachers.
21 And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying,
“this is the way; walk in it,”
when you go to your right
and when you go to your left.
22 And you will defile the plating of your silver idols
and the covering of your gold image.
You will scatter them like contaminated things;[ab]
you will say to it, “Filth!”[ac]
23 And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground,
and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fertile.[ad]
On that day, your cattle will graze in broad pastures;[ae]
24 and the oxen and the donkeys that till[af] the ground will eat fodder, sorrel
that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill,
watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.
26 And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun,
and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days,
on the day when Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people,
and he heals the wound of his blow.
Judgment against Assyria
27 Look! The name of Yahweh comes from afar,
burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud.
His lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 And his breath is like an overflowing river;
it reaches up to the neck
to shake the nations with the sieve of worthlessness;
and a bridle that leads astray is on the jawbones of the peoples.
29 You shall have a song[ag] as in the night when a holy festival is kept,
and a gladness of heart like one who goes with the flute,
to go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the rock of Israel.
30 And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard,
and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen,
in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire,
with a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones[ah] of hail.
31 Indeed, Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahweh;
he strikes with the rod.
32 And every stroke of the staff of foundation[ai] that Yahweh lays will be on it with timbrels and lyres,
and he will fight against it[aj] with battles of brandishing.
33 For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday;
indeed, it is made ready for the king.
He makes its pile of wood deep and wide;
he makes fire and wood abundant.[ak]
The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 30:1 Literally “declaration of”
- Isaiah 30:1 Or “and”
- Isaiah 30:1 Or “and”
- Isaiah 30:1 Literally “for the sake of adding”
- Isaiah 30:2 Or “and”
- Isaiah 30:6 Literally “from”
- Isaiah 30:6 Literally “shoulder”
- Isaiah 30:6 Hebrew “hump”
- Isaiah 30:7 Or “And”
- Isaiah 30:7 Literally “Egypt”
- Isaiah 30:8 Or “and”
- Isaiah 30:8 Literally “for last day”
- Isaiah 30:12 Literally “going wrong”
- Isaiah 30:13 Literally “whose breaking comes”
- Isaiah 30:14 Literally “someone who forms”
- Isaiah 30:14 Hebrew “fragment”
- Isaiah 30:14 Literally “for the taking away of fire”
- Isaiah 30:14 Literally “for the skimming off of”
- Isaiah 30:15 Or “And”
- Isaiah 30:16 Hebrew “horse”
- Isaiah 30:16 Hebrew “horse”
- Isaiah 30:17 Literally “from the face of”
- Isaiah 30:17 Literally “from the face”
- Isaiah 30:17 Literally “head”
- Isaiah 30:20 Or “and”
- Isaiah 30:20 Hebrew “himself”
- Isaiah 30:20 Literally “be seeing”
- Isaiah 30:22 Hebrew “contaminated thing”
- Isaiah 30:22 Or “Get out!”
- Isaiah 30:23 Literally “fat”
- Isaiah 30:23 Hebrew “pasture”
- Isaiah 30:24 Or “tilling”
- Isaiah 30:29 Literally “There shall be a song for you”
- Isaiah 30:30 Hebrew “stone”
- Isaiah 30:32 Some translations emend this to “discipline”
- Isaiah 30:32 The reading tradition (Qere) has “them”
- Isaiah 30:33 Literally “numerous”
Isaiah 30
Common English Bible
Help from Egypt is futile
30 Doom to you, rebellious children, says the Lord,
who make a plan, which is not mine;
who weave a plot,[a] but not by my spirit,
piling up sin on sin;
2 setting out to go down to Egypt without consulting me,
taking refuge in Pharaoh’s refuge and hiding in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Pharaoh’s refuge will become your shame,
hiding in Egypt’s shadow your disgrace.
4 Though their officials are in Zoan,
and their messengers reach Hanes,
5 all will become shamed because of a people who can’t assist them.
They are no help; they are no profit;
rather, shame and disgrace.
6 An oracle about the beasts in the arid southern plain.
Through a land of distress and danger,
lioness and roaring[b] lion, viper and flying serpent,
they will carry their wealth on donkeys’ shoulders
and their treasures on camels’ humps to a people who won’t profit,
7 for Egypt’s help is utterly worthless.
Therefore, I call her Rahab Who Sits Still.[c]
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
inscribe it on a scroll,
so in the future it will endure as a witness.
9 These are rebellious people, lying children,
children unwilling to hear the Lord’s teaching,
10 who say to the seers, “Don’t foresee,”
and to the visionaries, “Don’t report truthful visions;
tell us flattering things;
envision deceptions;
11 get out of the way;
step off the path;
let’s have no more ‘holy one of Israel.’”
12 Therefore, the holy one of Israel says:
Because you reject this word
and trust in oppression and cunning and rely on them,
13 your sin will be like a crack in a high wall; it bulges, about to fall:
suddenly, in an instant, it breaks!
14 Its breaking is like the breaking of a storage jar
that is totally shattered.
No piece from among its fragments will be large enough to take fire from a hearth,
or to dip water from a cistern.
15 Therefore, the Lord God,
the holy one of Israel, says:
In return and rest you will be saved;
quietness and trust will be your strength—
but you refused.
16 You said,
“No! We’ll flee on horses”—
therefore, you will indeed flee—
“and we’ll ride off; on swift steeds we will ride”—
therefore, your pursuers will be swift.
17 One thousand will flee at the threat of one,
and at the threat of five you will flee,
until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a flag on a hill.
18 Nonetheless, the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you,
and will rise up to show you compassion.
The Lord is a God of justice;
happy are all who wait for him.
This is the way
19 People in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. God will certainly be merciful to you. Hearing the sound of your outcry, God will answer you. 20 Though the Lord gives you the bread of distress and the water of oppression, your teacher will no longer hide, but you will see your teacher. 21 If you stray to the right or the left, you will hear a word that comes from behind you: “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 You will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered priestly vest,[d] and you will scatter them like menstrual rags. “Get out,” you will say to them.
23 God will provide rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food the ground produces will be rich and abundant. On that day, your cattle will graze in large pastures. 24 The oxen and donkeys that are working the ground will eat tasty feed spread for them with shovel and fork.
25 On every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, streams will run with water on the day of the great massacre, 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 brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the Lord bandages the people’s brokenness and heals the wounds inflicted by his blows.
Assyria punished
27 Look there! The Lord is coming from far away;
his anger blazing, his smoke-cloud thick.
His lips are full of fury;
his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like a raging river that reaches up to the neck,
to shake the nations with a sieve of destruction,
and to put a misleading rein on the people’s jaws.
29 There will be singing for you
as on the night that people celebrate a festival.
The heart will be joyful as it is when one goes with a flute
to the Lord’s mountain,
to the rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will unleash his majestic voice
and display his crushing arm
in furious anger, with a flame of consuming fire,
in stormy rain and hail.
31 The Lord’s voice will terrify Assyria;
with a rod he will smite it.
32 And every crack that is made in the foundation wall,
which the Lord will bring down upon him,
will be accompanied by timbrels and lyres.
The Lord will raise his arm and fight against Assyria in battle. 33 His place for burning[e] was arranged long ago;
it is indeed made ready for a king.
God has made its wood pile wide and deep,
fire and wood in abundance.
The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, ignites it.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 30:1 Heb uncertain
- Isaiah 30:6 Or from them
- Isaiah 30:7 Or Rahab the silent
- Isaiah 30:22 Correction; Heb ephod
- Isaiah 30:33 Heb Topheth
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