13My Lord said:
Because that people has approached [Me] with its mouth
And honored Me with its lips,
But has kept its heart far from Me,
And its worship of Me has been
A commandment of men, learned by rote—
14Truly, I shall further baffle that people
With bafflement upon bafflement;
And the wisdom of its wise shall fail,
And the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.
15Ha! Those who would hide their plans
Deep from the LORD!
Who do their work in dark places
And say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?”
16e-How perverse of you!
Should the potter be accounted as the clay?-e
Should what is made say of its Maker,
“He did not make me,”
And what is formed say of Him who formed it,
f-“He did not understand?”-f
17Surely, in a little while,
Lebanon will be transformed into farm land,
And farm land accounted as mere brush.
18In that day, the deaf shall hear even written words,
And the eyes of the blind shall see
Even in darkness and obscurity.
19Then the humble shall have increasing joy through the LORD,
And the neediest of men shall exult
In the Holy One of Israel.
20For the tyrant shall be no more,
The scoffer shall cease to be;
And those diligent for evil shall be wiped out,
21Who cause men to lose their lawsuits,
Laying a snare for the arbiter at the gate,
And wronging by falsehood
Him who was in the right.
22Assuredly, thus said the LORD to the House of Jacob, g-Who redeemed Abraham:-g
No more shall Jacob be shamed,
No longer his face grow pale.
23For when he—that is, his children—behold what My hands have wrought in his midst, they will hallow My name.
Men will hallow the Holy One of Jacob
And stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24And the confused shall acquire insight
And grumblers accept instruction.
jugs or like the clay?”
30 Oh, disloyal sons!
—declares the LORD—
Making plans
Against My wishes,
Weaving schemes
Against My will,
Thereby piling
Guilt on guilt—
2Who set out to go down to Egypt
Without asking Me,
To seek refuge with Pharaoh,
To seek shelter under the protection of Egypt.
3The refuge with Pharaoh shall result in your shame;
The shelter under Egypt’s protection, in your chagrin.
4Though his officers are present in Zoan,a
And his messengersb reach as far as Hanes,
5They all shall come to shame
Because of a people that does not avail them,
That is of no help or avail,
But [brings] only chagrin and disgrace.
6c-The “Beasts of the Negeb” Pronouncement.
Through a-cland of distress and hardship,
Of lion and roaringd king-beast,
Of viper and flying seraph,e
They convey their wealth on the backs of asses,
Their treasures on camels’ humps,
To a people of no avail.
7For the help of Egypt
Shall be vain and empty.
Truly, I call this,
f-“They are a threat that has ceased.”-f
8Now,
Go, write it down on a tablet
And inscribe it in a record,
That it may be with them for future days,
A witnessg forever.
9For it is a rebellious people,
Faithless children,
Children who refused to heed
The instruction of the LORD;
10Who said to the seers,
“Do not see,”
To the prophets, “Do not prophesy truth to us;
Speak to us falsehoods,
Prophesy delusions.
11Leave the way!
Get off the path!
Let us hear no more
About the Holy One of Israel!”
12Assuredly,
Thus said the Holy One of Israel:
Because you have rejected this word,
And have put your trust and reliance
In that which is fraudulent and tortuous—
13Of a surety,
This iniquity shall work on you
Like a spreading breach that occurs in a lofty wall,
Whose crash comes sudden and swift.
14It is smashed as one smashes an earthen jug,
Ruthlessly shattered
So that no shard is left in its breakage
To scoop coals from a brazier,
Or ladle water from a puddle.
15For thus said my Lord GOD,
The Holy One of Israel,
“You shall triumph by stillness and quiet;
Your victory shall come about
Through calm and confidence.”
But you refused.
16“No,” you declared.
“We shall flee on steeds”—
Therefore you shall flee!
“We shall ride on swift mounts”—
Therefore your pursuers shall prove swift!
17One thousand before the shout of one—
You shall flee at the shout of five;
Till what is left of you
Is like a mast on a hilltop,
Like a pole upon a mountain.
18Truly, the LORD is waiting to show you grace,
Truly, He will arise to pardon you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Happy are all who wait for Him.
19Indeed, O people in Zion, dwellers of Jerusalem, you shall not have cause to weep. He will grant you His favor at the sound of your cry; He will respond as soon as He hears it. 20My Lord will provide for you meager bread and scant water. Then your Guide will no more d-be ignored,-d but your eyes will watch your Guide; 21and, whenever you deviate to the right or to the left, your ears will heed the command from behind you: “This is the road; follow it!” 22And you will treat as unclean the silver overlay of your images and the golden plating of your idols. You will casth them away like a menstruous woman. “Out!” you will call to them.
23So rain shall be provided for the seed with which you sow the ground, and the bread that the ground brings forth shall be rich and fat. Your livestock, in that day, shall graze in broad pastures; 24as for the cattle and the asses that till the soil, they shall partake of salted fodder that has been winnowed with shovel and fan.
25And on every high mountain and on every lofty hill, there shall appear brooks and watercourses—on a day of heavy slaughter, when towers topple. 26And the light of the moon shall become like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall become sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, when the LORD binds up His people’s wounds and heals the injuries it has suffered.
27Behold the i-LORD Himself-i
Comes from afar
In blazing wrath,
j-With a heavy burden-j—
His lips full of fury,
His tongue like devouring fire,
28And his breath like a raging torrent
Reaching halfway up the neck—
To set a misguiding yokek upon nations
And a misleading bridle upon the jaws of peoples,
29For you, there shall be singing
As on a night when a festival is hallowed;
There shall be rejoicing as when they march
With flute, l-with timbrels, and with lyres-l
To the Rock of Israel on the Mount of the LORD.
30For the LORD will make His majestic voice heard
And display the sweep of His arm
In raging wrath,
In a devouring blaze of fire,
In tempest, and rainstorm, and hailstones.
31Truly, Assyria, who beats with the rod,
Shall be cowed by the voice of the LORD;
32d-And each time the appointed staff passes by,
The LORD will bring down [His arm] upon him
And will do battle with him as he waves it.-d
33The Tophethm has long been ready for him;
He too is destined for Melechn—
His firepit has been made both wide and deep,
With plenty of fire and firewood,
And with the breath of the LORD
Burning in it like a stream of sulfur.
31 Ha!
Those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely upon horses!
They have put their trust in abundance of chariots,
In vast numbers of riders,
And they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel,
They have not sought the LORD.
2But He too is wise!
He has brought on misfortune,
And has not canceled His word.
So He shall rise against the house of evildoers,
And the alliesa of the workers of iniquity.
3For the Egyptians are man, not God,
And their horses are flesh, not spirit;
And when the LORD stretches out His arm,
The helper shall trip
And the helped one shall fall,
And both shall perish together.
4For thus the LORD has said to me:
As a lion—a great beast—
Growls over its prey
And, when the shepherds gather
In force against him,
Is not dismayed by their cries
Nor cowed by their noise—
So the LORD of Hosts will descend to make war
Against the mount and the hill of Zion.
5Like the birds that fly, even so will the LORD of Hosts shield Jerusalem, shielding and saving, protecting and rescuing.
6b-Return, O children of Israel,-b to Him to whom they have been so shamefully false; 7for in that day everyone will reject his idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have made for your guilt.
8Then Assyria shall fall,
Not by the sword of man;
A sword not of humans shall devour him.
He shall shrivelc before the sword,
And his young men d-pine away.-d
9His rock shall melt with terror,
And his officers shall e-collapse from weakness-e—
Declares the LORD, who has a fire in Zion,
Who has an oven in Jerusalem.f
32 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,
And ministers shall govern with justice;
2Every one of them shall be
Like a refuge from gales,
A shelter from rainstorms;
Like brooks of water in a desert,
Like the shade of a massive rock
In a languishing land.
3Then the eyes of those who have sight shall not be sealed,
And the ears of those who have hearing shall listen;
4And the minds of the thoughtless shall attend and note,
And the tongues of mumblers shall speak with fluent eloquence.
5No more shall a villain be called noble,
Nor shall “gentleman” be said of a knave.
6For the villain speaks villainy
And plots treachery;
To act impiously
And to preach disloyalty against the LORD;
To leave the hungry unsatisfied
And deprive the thirsty of drink.
7As for the knave, his tools are knavish.
He forges plots
To destroy the poor with falsehoods
And the needy when they plead their cause.
8But the noble has noble intentions
And is constant in noble acts.
9You carefree women,
Attend, hear my words!
You confident ladies,
Give ear to my speech!
10a-In little more than a year,-a
You shall be troubled, O confident ones,
When the vintage is over
And no ingathering takes place.
11Tremble, you carefree ones!
Quake, O confident ones!
Strip yourselves naked,
Put the cloth about your loins!
12Lament b-upon the breasts,-b
For the pleasant fields,
For the spreading grapevines,
13For my people’s soil—
It shall be overgrown with briers and thistles—
Aye, and for all the houses of delight,
For the city of mirth.
14For the castle shall be abandoned,
The noisy city forsaken;
Citadel and tower shall become
c-Bare places-c forever,
A stamping ground for wild asses,
A pasture for flocksd—
15Till a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
And wilderness is transformed into farm land,
While farm land rates as mere
