1"Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "who make plans, but not from me; who make an agreement, but not by my Spirit, so they add sin to sin."
2"They set out to go down into Egypt, and they have not asked at my mouth. They go to make themselves strong in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt."
3So the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your trust in the shadow of Egypt will be your disgrace.
4For his princes were at Zoan, and his messengers came to Hanes.
5They were all ashamed of a people who could not help them at all. That people brought no help and no gain, but only shame and disgrace.
6The burden of the beasts of the south: through a land of trouble and pain, where the lion and the lioness come from, and the viper and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot help them.
7For the help of Egypt is empty and useless. So I have called her this: "Their strength is to sit still."
8Now go, write it for them on a tablet, and set it down in a book, so that it may last for the time to come, for ever and ever:
9that this is a rebellious people, children who lie, children who will not listen to the law of the LORD.
10They say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not tell us what is right. Speak smooth things to us. Prophesy lies."
11"Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, take the Holy One of Israel away from before us."
12So this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you refuse this word, and you trust in cruelty and crooked ways, and lean on them,"
13this sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, ready to fall, bulging out. It breaks all at once, in a moment.
14"He will smash it as a potter's jar is smashed to pieces. He will not spare it. Among the broken pieces not one bit will be found big enough to carry fire from the hearth, or to scoop water out of the pool."
15For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In turning back and resting you will be saved. In quietness and trust will be your strength." But you would not.
16You said, "No, we will run away on horses." So you will run away. And, "We will ride on swift ones." So those who chase you will be swift.
17One thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will flee, until you are left like a pole on a mountain top, like a flag on a hill.
18And so the LORD will wait, so that he may be gracious to you. So he will rise up, so that he may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
19For the people will live in Zion, at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you.
20Though the Lord gives you the bread of hardship and the water of suffering, yet your teachers will not be hidden away in a corner any more, but your eyes will see your teachers.
21And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.
22You will treat as filthy the silver covering of your carved images and the gold covering of your metal images. You will throw them away like a stained cloth. You will say to them, "Get out."
23Then he will give rain for your seed, when you sow the ground, and bread from the crop of the land, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in wide pastures.
24The oxen too, and the young donkeys that work the ground, will eat clean fodder, winnowed with the shovel and the fan.
25On every high mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams of water, in the day of the great killing, when the towers fall.
26The 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, in the day when the LORD binds up the hurt of his people and heals the wound he struck.
27Look, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and its weight is heavy. His lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28His breath is like a flooding stream that rises to the neck. It sifts the nations in the sieve of ruin. There is a bridle in the jaws of the peoples, leading them astray.
29You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when someone goes with a flute to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel.
30The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and will show his arm coming down, with the fury of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with a cloudburst, a storm and hailstones.
31For at the voice of the LORD the Assyrian will be beaten down, he who struck with a rod.
32And every stroke of the staff of punishment that the LORD lays on him will come with tambourines and harps. In battles of shaking he will fight against them.
33For Tophet was made ready long ago. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made it deep and wide. Its pile is fire and plenty of wood. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulphur, sets it alight.