The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

1“Woe to the rebellious children,”

declares the LORD,

“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,

who form an alliance, but against My will,

heaping up sin upon sin.

2They set out to go down to Egypt

without asking My advice,

to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection

and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.

3But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,

and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.

4For though their princes are at Zoan

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

5everyone will be put to shame

because of a people useless to them.

They cannot be of help;

they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.”

6This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,

of lioness and lion,

of viper and flying serpent,

they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people of no profit to them.

7Egypt’s help is futile and empty;

therefore I have called her

Rahab Who Sits Still.a

8Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence

and inscribe it on a scroll;

it will be for the days to come,

a witness forever and ever.

9These are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.

10They say to the seers,

“Stop seeing visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Do not prophesy to us the truth!

Speak to us pleasant words;

prophesy illusions.

11Get out of the way; turn off the road.

Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,

trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,

13this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,

a bulge in a high wall,

whose collapse will come suddenly—

in an instant!

14It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,

shattered so that no fragment can be found.

Not a shard will be found in the dust

large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth

or to skim the water from a cistern.”

15For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:

“By repentance and rest

you would be saved;

your strength would lie in quiet confidence—

but you were not willing.”

16“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”

Therefore you will flee!

“We will ride swift horses,”

but your pursuers will be faster.

17A thousand will flee at the threat of one;

at the threat of five you will all flee,

until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,

like a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

18Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;

therefore He rises to show you compassion,

for the LORD is a just God.

Blessed are all who wait for Him.

19O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you. 20The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.

21And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” 22So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

23Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. 24The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

25And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26The light of the moon will be as bright as 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 binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.

27Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,

with burning anger and dense smoke.

His lips are full of fury,

and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

28His breath is like a rushing torrent

that rises to the neck.

He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;

He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.

29You will sing

as on the night of a holy festival,

and your heart will rejoice

like one who walks to the music of a flute,

going up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the Rock of Israel.

30And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard

and His mighty arm to be revealed,

striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,

and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.

31For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;

He will strike them with His scepter.

32And with every stroke of the rod of punishmentb

that the LORD brings down on them,

the tambourines and lyres will sound

as He battles with weapons brandished.

33For Topheth has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,

with plenty of fire and wood.

The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,

sets it ablaze.