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“making plans that go against My will,
making an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;
2 who go down to Egypt,
without seeking My counsel,
they seek refuge under the protection of Pharaoh,
to shelter in the shade cast by Egypt!
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame,
and Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
4 For though his princes are at Zoan
and his envoys reach to Hanes,
5 everyone will be put to shame
because of a people without support,
who bring neither help nor benefit,
but instead only shame and reproach.”
6 An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev:
Through a land of distress and hardship,
of lioness and roaring lion,
of viper and striking serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people who will not help them.
7 For the help of the Egyptians is futile and useless.
Therefore I call her,
‘Rahab Who Just Sits’.
8 “Now go, write it on a tablet before them;
inscribe it on a scroll,
so that in days to come
it will stand as an ever-present witness.
9 For this is a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
children who will not hear
the instruction of the Lord.
10 They say to the seers,
‘Do not see’
and to the prophets,
‘Do not prophesy right things;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions.
11 Get out of the way!
Leave this pathway,
let us hear no more
of the Holy One of Israel’.”
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have despised this message,
and trusted in oppression,
and depended on deceit;
13 this iniquity will become for you
like a spreading crack in a high wall,
bulging and ready to topple,
that suddenly collapses.
14 It will break like the potter’s jar
broken in pieces and ruthlessly shattered,
so that from among the fragments
not a piece will not be found
to take fire from a hearth,
or to scoop water from a cistern.”
15 For this is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you were not willing.
16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses!’
Therefore you will flee!
You also said, ‘We will ride upon swift horses!’
Therefore those who pursue you will be swift.
17 A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee,
until you are left
like a flagpole on a mountaintop,
or like a banner on a hill.”
18 Therefore the Lord waits
to be gracious to you;
He rises up
to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all who wait for Him!
19 O people of Zion who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you.
20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes will see your Teacher.
21 Whether you turn to the right hand,
or whether you turn to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you saying:
“This is the way, walk in it.”
22 Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver, and your images of gold. You will throw them away like a menstrual cloth. You will say to them, “Away with you!”
23 Then He send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food, the produce of the fields, will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, that has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 On every high mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall.
26 The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the bruises of His people, and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
27 Look, the Name of the Lord comes from far away,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke.
His lips are full of indignation,
and His tongue a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing torrent
rising up to the neck.
He sifts the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and places in the jaws of the peoples
a bridle to lead them astray.
29 You will have a song in the night
as when you celebrate a holy festival;
with gladness of heart,
like one who marches to the flute,
going up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
and the descending of His arm to be seen,
with fierce anger,
and with the flame of devouring fire
in cloudburst, tempest, and hailstones.
31 For Assyria will be shattered by the voice of the Lord,
when He strikes with a rod.
32 And every stroke of the appointed staff,
which the Lord will lash down on him,
will be to the music of tambourines and harps,
as He battles against them with brandished weapons.
33 For Tophet has long been prepared;
indeed, for the king it is ready.
He has made it deep and large,
a funeral pyre with fire and abundant wood;
the breath of the Lord,
like a torrent of brimstone,
kindles it.