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The Futility of Reliance on Egypt

30Oh, rebellious children, says the Lord,
who carry out a plan, but not mine;
who make an alliance, but against my will,
   adding sin to sin;
² who set out to go down to Egypt
   without asking for my counsel,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh,
   and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt;
³ Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame,
   and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.
⁴ For though his officials are at Zoan
   and his envoys reach Hanes,
⁵ everyone comes to shame
   through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
   but shame and disgrace.

6 An oracle concerning the animals of the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and distress,
   of lioness and roaring^* lion,
   of viper and flying serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
   and their treasures on the humps of camels,
   to a people that cannot profit them.
⁷ For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty,
   therefore I have called her,
   ‘Rahab who sits still.’^*

A Rebellious People

⁸ Go now, write it before them on a tablet,
   and inscribe it in a book,
so that it may be for the time to come
   as a witness for ever.
⁹ For they are a rebellious people,
   faithless children,
children who will not hear
   the instruction of the Lord;
¹⁰ who say to the seers, ‘Do not see’;
   and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
   prophesy illusions,
¹¹ leave the way, turn aside from the path,
   let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’
¹² Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you reject this word,
   and put your trust in oppression and deceit,
   and rely on them;
¹³ therefore this iniquity shall become for you
   like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
   whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
¹⁴ its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
   that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a sherd is found
   for taking fire from the hearth,
   or dipping water out of the cistern.

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
   in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
But you refused ¹⁶and said,
‘No! We will flee upon horses’—
   therefore you shall flee!
and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’—
   therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
¹⁷ A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
   at the threat of five you shall flee,
until you are left
   like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
   like a signal on a hill.

God’s Promise to Zion

¹⁸ Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
   therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
   blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. ²⁰Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’