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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;