Isaiah 30 :: New International Version (NIV)

1 “Woe to the obstinate children,”

declares the LORD,

“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,

forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,

heaping sin upon sin;

2 who go down to Egypt

without consulting me;

who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,

to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,

Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

4 Though they have officials in Zoan

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

5 everyone will be put to shame

because of a people useless to them,

who bring neither help nor advantage,

but only shame and disgrace.”

Through a land of hardship and distress,

of lions and lionesses,

of adders and darting snakes,

the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,

their treasures on the humps of camels,

to that unprofitable nation,

7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.

Therefore I call her

Rahab the Do-Nothing.

8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.

9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.

10 They say to the seers,

“See no more visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,

prophesy illusions.

11 Leave this way,

get off this path,

and stop confronting us

with the Holy One of Israel!”

“Because you have rejected this message,

relied on oppression

and depended on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you

like a high wall, cracked and bulging,

that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

14 It will break in pieces like pottery,

shattered so mercilessly

that among its pieces not a fragment will be found

for taking coals from a hearth

or scooping water out of a cistern.”

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’

Therefore you will flee!

You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’

Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17 A thousand will flee

at the threat of one;

at the threat of five

you will all flee away,

till you are left

like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,

like a banner on a hill.”

18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;

therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For the LORD is a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him!

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

with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath,

and his tongue is a consuming fire.

28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,

rising up to the neck.

He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;

he places in the jaws of the peoples

a bit that leads them astray.

29 And you will sing

as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;

your hearts will rejoice

as when people playing pipes go up

to the mountain of the LORD,

to the Rock of Israel.

30 The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voice

and will make them see his arm coming down

with raging anger and consuming fire,

with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

31 The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;

with his rod he will strike them down.

32 Every stroke the LORD lays on them

with his punishing club

will be to the music of timbrels and harps,

as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

33 Topheth has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,

with an abundance of fire and wood;

the breath of the LORD,

like a stream of burning sulfur,

sets it ablaze.