Isaiah 30:1-21

Woe to the Obstinate Nation 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;

2who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

3But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

4Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

5everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.”

6A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev: 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,

7to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.

8Go 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.

9For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD ’s instruction.

10They 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.

11Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”

12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,

13this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

14It 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.”

15This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

16You 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!

17A 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.”

18Yet 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! 19People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”