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27 Look! The Lord is coming from far away,
    burning with anger,
    surrounded by thick, rising smoke.
His lips are filled with fury;
    his words consume like fire.
28 His hot breath pours out like a flood
    up to the neck of his enemies.
He will sift out the proud nations for destruction.
    He will bridle them and lead them away to ruin.

29 But the people of God will sing a song of joy,
    like the songs at the holy festivals.
You will be filled with joy,
    as when a flutist leads a group of pilgrims
to Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord
    to the Rock of Israel.
30 And the Lord will make his majestic voice heard.
    He will display the strength of his mighty arm.
It will descend with devouring flames,
    with cloudbursts, thunderstorms, and huge hailstones.
31 At the Lord’s command, the Assyrians will be shattered.
    He will strike them down with his royal scepter.
32 And as the Lord strikes them with his rod of punishment,[a]
    his people will celebrate with tambourines and harps.
    Lifting his mighty arm, he will fight the Assyrians.
33 Topheth—the place of burning—
    has long been ready for the Assyrian king;
    the pyre is piled high with wood.
The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano,
    will set it ablaze.

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Footnotes

  1. 30:32 As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac version; Masoretic Text reads with the founded rod.

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[a] 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[b] 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[c] that Yahweh lays will be on it with timbrels and lyres,
    and he will fight against it[d] 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.[e]
        The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 30:29 Literally “There shall be a song for you”
  2. Isaiah 30:30 Hebrew “stone”
  3. Isaiah 30:32 Some translations emend this to “discipline”
  4. Isaiah 30:32 The reading tradition (Qere) has “them”
  5. Isaiah 30:33 Literally “numerous”