 1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord. They take counsel, but not from me. They cover with a covering, but not from my Spirit, so that they add sin to sin. 2 They set out to go down to Egypt but have not asked me. They take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your curse. 4 For his rulers were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. 5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them, nor be a help nor gain, but a shame and also a reproach. 6 The burden concerning the beasts of the south. Into the land of trouble and woe. The lioness and the lion are from them. The viper, and the fiery flying serpent. They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit. 7 For Egypt helps vainly and worthlessly. So I have cried out concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. 8 Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. 9 Because this is a rebellious people, lying children. They are children who will not hear the law of the Lord. 10 They say to the seers, Do not see and to the prophets, Do not prophesy to us right things. Instead speak to us smooth things, prophesy falsehood. 11 Go out of the way. Turn aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you have despised this Word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rest on them, 13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. 14 He will break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces. He will have no pity so that there will not be found in the breaking of it a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit. 15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you will be saved. Quietness and hope will be your strength. But you were not willing. 16 You said, No. We will flee on a horse. Therefore you shall flee. You said, We will ride on the swift. Therefore those who pursue you will be swift. 17 One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke of five you will flee until you are left like a pole on the top of a mountain and like a sign on a hill. 18 The Lord waits to be gracious to you. Therefore He is exalted so that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all who wait for Him. 19 The people will live in Zion at Jerusalem. You will no longer weep for He will be very gracious to you. At the voice of your cry, when He hears it, He will answer you. 20 The Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. Yet your teachers will not be removed into a corner any more. But your eyes will see your teachers. 21 Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. When you turn to the right and when you turn to the left. 22 You also defile the covering of your graven images of silver and the ornament of your molten images of gold. You will cast them away like a menstruous cloth. You will say to it, Get away. 23 Then He will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground. The bread of the produce of the earth will be fat and plentiful. In that day, your cattle will feed in large pastures. 24 The ox and young donkeys that plow the ground will eat clean fodder that has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. 25 There will be rivers and streams of waters on every high mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. 26 The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun. The light of the sun will be seven times greater like the light of seven days in the day when the Lord binds up the break of His people and heals the stroke of their wound. 27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from far, burning with His anger and uplifting of smoke. His lips are full of fury and His tongue like a devouring fire. 28 Like an overflowing stream, His breath will reach to the middle of the neck to sift the nations with a sieve of vanity. A bridle will be in the jaws of the people, causing them to go astray. 29 You will have a song as in the keeping of a holy feast night with gladness of heart like when one goes with a flute up to the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty one of Israel. 30 The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard. The bringing down of His arm will be seen with raging anger and flame of a devouring fire, cloudburst, and storm of hailstones. 31 For through the voice of the Lord, the Assyrian who struck with a rod will be beaten down. 32 In every place where the ordained staff passes, which the Lord will lay on him, it will be with tambourines and harps. In battles of shaking He will fight with them. 33 For Tophet is ordained of old. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large. He makes great with fire and wood. The breath of the Lord kindles it like a river of brimstone.
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