1“Woe to the stubborn children,” declares יהוה, “to make counsel, but not from Me, and to devise plans, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;

2who are setting out to go down to Mitsrayim, and have not asked My mouth, to be strengthened in the strength of Pharaoh, and to seek refuge in the shadow of Mitsrayim!

3“And the strength of Pharaoh shall become your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Mitsrayim your confusion.

4“For his princes were at Tso‛an, and his messengers came to Ḥanes.

5“They were all ashamed of a people who do not profit them, not for help or profit, but a shame and also a reproach.”

6The message concerning the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and distress, from which came the lioness and lion, the adder and fiery flying serpent, they convey their riches on the backs of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people,

7even Mitsrayim, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore I have called her Rahaḇ-Hĕm-Sheḇeth.

8And go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it on a scroll, that it is for a latter day, a witness forever:

9that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who refuse to hear the Torah of יהוה,

10who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us what is smooth, prophesy deceits.

11“Turn aside from the way, swerve from the path, cause the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl to cease from before us.”

12Therefore thus said the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them,

13therefore this crookedness is to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, swiftly.”

14And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, which is broken in pieces, without sparing, so that there is not found among its fragments a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern.

15For thus said the Master יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, “In returning and rest you are saved, in stillness and trust is your strength.” But you would not,

16and you said, “No, for we flee upon horses,” therefore you flee! And, “We ride on swift horses,” therefore those who pursue you are swift!

17One thousand flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee until you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a sign on a hill.

18And therefore יהוה shall wait, to show you favour. And therefore He shall be exalted, to have compassion on you. For יהוה is an Elohim of right-ruling. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

19For the people shall dwell in Tsiyon at Yerushalayim, you shall weep no more. He shall show much favour to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He shall answer you.

20Though יהוה gave you bread of adversity and water of affliction, your Teachera shall no longer be hidden. But your eyes shall see your Teacherb,

21and your ears hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the Way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right, or whenever you turn to the left.

22And you shall defile the covering of your graven images of silver, and the plating of your moulded images of gold. You shall throw them away as a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Be gone!”

23And He shall give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the earth. And it shall be fat and rich, your cattle grazing in an enlarged pasture in that day,

24and the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground eat seasoned fodder winnowed with shovel and fan.

25And on every high mountain and on every high hill there shall be rivers and streams of waters, in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that יהוה binds up the breach of His people, and heals the wound of His blows.

27See, the Name of יהוה is coming from afar, burning with His wrath, and heavy smoke. His lips shall be filled with rage, and His tongue be as a devouring fire;

28and His breath shall be as an overflowing stream, which reaches up to the neck, to sifta the nations with a sieve of falsehood, and a misleading bridle on the jaws of the peoples.

29Let the song be to you as in a night set apart for a festival, and gladness of heart as he who is going with a flute, to come into the mountain of יהוה, to the Rock of Yisra’ĕl.

30And יהוה shall cause His excellent voice to be heard, and show the coming down of His arm, with raging wrath and the flame of a consuming fire, with scattering, downpour and hailstones.

31For through the voice of יהוה Ashshur is broken down, with a rod He smites.

32And every passage of the ordained staff which יהוה lays on him, shall be with tambourines and lyres, when He shall fight with it, battling with a brandishing arm.

33For Topheth was ordained of old, even for the sovereign it has been prepared. He has made it deep and large, its fire pit with much wood; the breath of יהוה, as a stream of burning sulphur, is burning in it!