The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

1Woe to the rebellious children, said the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

2That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

4For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

6The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from where come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

7For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

A Warning to a Rebellious People

8Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

9That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:

10Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

11Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

12Why thus said the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.

14And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water with out of the pit.

15For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.

16But you said, No; for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

God's Mercies

18And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

19For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you. 20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers: 21And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. 22You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say to it, Get you hence.

23Then shall he give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground with; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures. 24The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 25And there shall be on every high mountain, and on every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26Moreover 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 breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.

27Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

28And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

29You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

30And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

31For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay on him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

33For Tophet is ordained of old; yes, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it.