Isaiah 30:19-31:9

English Standard Version

¹⁹For a people shall dwell ^(A)in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰And though the Lord give you the ^(B)bread of adversity and the ^(C)water of affliction, ^(D)yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹^(E)And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is ^(F)the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²²Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. ^(G)You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

²³^(H)And he will give ^(I)rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. ^(J)In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, ²⁴and ^(K)the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And ^(L)on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, ^(M)when the towers fall. ²⁶^(N)Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when ^(O)the Lord binds up ^(P)the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;^[a]
his lips are full of fury,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
²⁸^(Q)his breath is ^(R)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 ^(S)a bridle that leads astray.

²⁹You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, ^(T)as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to ^(U)the mountain of the Lord, to ^(V)the Rock of Israel. ³⁰And the Lord ^(W)will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger ^(X)and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst ^(Y)and storm and hailstones. ³¹The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, ^(Z)when he strikes with his rod. ³²And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them ^(AA)will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. ^(AB)Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. ³³For ^(AC)a burning place^[b] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, ^(AD)its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; ^(AE)the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

31 Woe^[c] to ^(AF)those who go down to Egypt for help
    and rely on horses,
who ^(AG)trust in chariots because they are many
    and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but ^(AH)do not look to the Holy One of Israel
    or consult the Lord!
²And ^(AI)yet he is wise and brings disaster;
    ^(AJ)he does not call back his words,
but ^(AK)will arise against the house of the evildoers
    and against the helpers of ^(AL)those who work iniquity.
³The Egyptians are man, and not God,
    and their horses ^(AM)are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
    the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
    and they will all perish together.

⁴For thus the Lord said to me,
^(AN)“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
    and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
    or daunted at their noise,
^(AO)so the Lord of hosts will come down
    to fight^[d] on Mount Zion and on its hill.
⁵^(AP)Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
    will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
    he will spare and rescue it.”

⁶^(AQ)Turn to him from whom people^[e] have ^(AR)deeply revolted, O children of Israel. ⁷For in that day ^(AS)everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

⁸^(AT)“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
    and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
    and his young men shall be ^(AU)put to forced labor.
⁹^(AV)His rock shall pass away in terror,
    and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the Lord, whose ^(AW)fire is in Zion,
    and whose ^(AX)furnace is in Jerusalem.