1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
2 that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.
5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose: therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
9 For it is a rebellious nation, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
10 who tell the seers, "Don't see;" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits,
11 get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon;
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
14 He shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces of it a broken piece with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. But you would not:
16 you said, No, for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, we will ride on the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.
18 Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear, he will answer you.
20 Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers shall not be hidden anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers;
21 and your ears shall 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.
22 You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as an unclean thing; you shall tell it, Get hence.
23 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day your cattle shall feed in large pastures;
24 the oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
25 On every lofty mountain and on every high hill shall be brooks and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;
28 and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err shall be in the jaws of the peoples.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he strike him.
32 Every stroke of the appointed staff, which the Lord shall lay on him, shall be with the sound of tambourines and harps; and in battles with the brandishing of his arm will he fight with them.
33 For a Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; it is a pile of fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.