Warning Against Relying on Egypt
Isaiah 30“Woe to the rebellious children”, says YHWH, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down into Egypt without asking for my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be y’all’s shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt y’all’s confusion. For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. They will all be ashamed because of a people who can’t profit them, who are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”
The burden of the animals of the South.
Through the land of trouble and anguish, of 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 an unprofitable people. For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it on a scroll, that it may be for the time to come a witness forever. For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear YHWH’s law. They tell the seers, “Y’all stop seeing visions!” and the prophets, “Y’all stop prophesying what is right to us. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy delusions. Y’all get out of the way, and leave the path. Y’all must stop putting the Holy One of Israel before us.” Therefore the Holy One of Israel says, “Because y’all have rejected this word, and y’all trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it. Therefore this iniquity to y’all’s will be like a breach ready to fall, swelling out from a high wall, whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant. Its collapse will be like a potter’s jar shattering, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
For thus said Lord YHWH, the Holy One of Israel, “In repentance and rest y’all will be saved. In quietness and trust is y’all’s strength.” But y’all refused, Y’all say, “No, we will flee on horses,” so y’all will flee! “We will ride on the swift,” so those who pursue y’all will be swift. One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, y’all will flee until y’all are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
YHWH Will Be Gracious
And yet YHWH will wait, so that ʜᴇ may be gracious to y’all. Hᴇ will rise up to have compassion on y’all. For YHWH is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for ʜɪᴍ. For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. Hᴇ will be gracious-gracious when you cry out. When ʜᴇ hears you, ʜᴇ will answer you. Though the Lord may give y’all the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers. When y’all turn to the right hand or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Y’all are to walk in it.” Then y’all will defile your graven images overlayed with silver, and your images covered in gold. You will scatter them like a menstrual cloth and tell them, “Be gone!”
Hᴇ will give the rain for your seed to sow the ground; and bread of the yield of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. There will be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the 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 that YHWH binds up the fracture of ʜɪꜱ people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
Look, the name of YHWH comes from far away, burning with ʜɪꜱ anger, and in thick rising smoke. Hɪꜱ lips are full of indignation. Hɪꜱ tongue is as a devouring fire. Hɪꜱ breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples. Y’all will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of YHWH, to Israel’s Rock. YHWH will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones. For through YHWH’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod. Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which YHWH will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. YHWH’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.