The Lantern

Isaiah30

The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

Ah, rebellious sons — the utterance of the LORD — making a counsel but not from me, and pouring out a libation but not of my spirit, so as to add sin to sin;

who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at my mouth, to take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh and to shelter in the shade of Egypt!

And the stronghold of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the shelter in the shade of Egypt your humiliation.

For his princes were at Zoan, and his messengers reached Hanes.

All were put to shame over a people who do not profit them — no help and no profit, but shame and also reproach.

An oracle of the beasts of the Negev. Through a land of distress and anguish — lioness and lion among them, viper and flying fiery serpent — they carry their wealth on the shoulders of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who do not profit.

And Egypt — breath and emptiness is their help. Therefore I have called this one “Rahab, they are a sitting still.”

Now come, write it on a tablet with them, and inscribe it on a document, and let it be for a later day, as a witness forever.

For it is a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who are not willing to hear the instruction of the LORD;

who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the visionaries, “Do not envision for us what is straight. Speak to us smooth things, envision illusions.

Turn aside from the way, bend away from the path; make the Holy One of Israel cease from before us.”

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and crookedness and leaned on it —

therefore this iniquity will be for you like a falling breach, bulging out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.

And its breaking is like the breaking of a potter’s jar, smashed without pity; and in its smashing there is not found a sherd to scoop fire from a hearth or to skim water from a cistern.

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In turning back and rest you will be saved; in quietness and in trust will be your strength — and you were not willing.

And you said, “No — for on horses we will flee!” Therefore you will flee. “And on the swift we will ride!” Therefore your pursuers will be swift.

One thousand before the rebuke of one; before the rebuke of five you will flee — until you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, and like a signal on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

And therefore the LORD waits, to show you favor; and therefore he rises high, to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Happy are all who wait for him.

For a people will dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem. You will weep no more; he will surely show you favor at the sound of your outcry; when he hears it, he answers you.

And the Lord will give you bread of distress and water of affliction; but your Teacher will no longer hide himself, and your eyes will be seeing your Teacher.

And your ears will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you would go to the right or when you would go to the left.

And you will defile the overlay of your silver carved images and the covering of your gold cast image; you will scatter them like a menstrual cloth — “Out!” you will say to it.

And he will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and fat. Your livestock will graze in that day in a broad pasture.

And the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

And there will be, on every high mountain and on every lifted hill, channels running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when towers fall.

And the light of the white moon will be like the light of the burning sun, and the light of the burning sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day the LORD binds up the breaking of his people and heals the wound of his blow.

See, the name of the LORD comes from afar, his anger burning and heavy with rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue like a devouring fire.

And his breath is like an overflowing wadi that reaches to the neck, to sift nations with the sieve of worthlessness, and a bridle that leads astray on the jaws of peoples.

The song will be yours as in the night when a festival is consecrated, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

And the LORD will make the majesty of his voice heard, and the descent of his arm he will show, in raging anger and the flame of a devouring fire, cloudburst and downpour and hailstone.

For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be shattered — he strikes with the rod.

And every passing of the staff of appointment, which the LORD lays upon him, will be with tambourines and with lyres; and with brandished battles he fights against them.

For a Topheth has long been set in order; it too is prepared for the king. He has made it deep, made it wide; its pyre is fire and much wood. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, sets it ablaze.