¹“Woe to the recalcitrant sons,

Says the Lord,

Who take counsel, but not from me,

And pour out a libation,

But not with my spirit,

So as to add sin upon sin,

²Who are setting out to go down to Egypt,

But they did not ask for my oracle,

Having decided to be strong in the stronghold of Pharaoh,

And to put trust in the shadow of Egypt.

³But Pharaoh's stronghold

Will be something you will be ashamed of,

And your trust in the shadow of Egypt

Will be to your disgrace.

⁴For his officers were in Zoan,

And his envoys arrived in Hanes.

⁵Everyone became ashamed because of a people

Who did not benefit them.

They were neither a help nor a benefit,

But rather a matter of shame

And ignominy as well.”

⁶The burden of the animals of the south.

In a distressed and troubled land,

Among them being the great lion and the old lion,

The viper and the fiery flying serpent,

They will transport their wealth on the shoulder of ass-colts,

And their treasure on the humps of camels,

To a people who will not benefit them.

⁷And Egypt will help

In a vacuous and empty way,

Which is why I have called it,

“Rahab sits still.”

⁸So now, go and write it on a tablet, with them present,

And inscribe it in a book,

So that it is there for the last day,

And in age-abiding perpetuity.

⁹For it is a rebellious people,

Dishonest sons,

Sons who are unwilling

To heed the law of the Lord,

¹⁰Who say to the seers,

“Don't see”,

And to those who see visions,

“Don't see righteous visions for us.

Speak flatteries to us,

See delusory visions,

¹¹Depart from the way,

Turn off from the path;

Remove the holy one of Israel

From our presence.”

¹²That is why this is what the holy one of Israel says:

“Since you have rejected these words

And trusted in oppression and deviousness

And relied on it,

¹³This iniquity will be ascribed to you,

Like a breach about to fall,

Bulging out in a high wall,

Whose collapse comes all of a sudden.

¹⁴And he will break it,

Like the breaking of a shattered potter's jar.

He will not show mercy,

And in his act of shattering,

Not a shard will be found

Which will be any use for taking fire from a burning mass,

Or drawing water from a cistern.”

¹⁵For this is what my Lord the Lord, the holy one of Israel, says:

“You will be saved with a return and rest.

Your valour will be with quietness and confidence.

But you were unwilling,

¹⁶And you said,

‘No, but rather we will flee on horseback.’

That is why you will flee.

And you said,

‘We will ride on swift horses.’

That is why those who pursue you will be swift.

¹⁷One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one;

At the rebuke of five, you will flee,

Until you remain like a mast on the summit of a mountain,

Or like an ensign on a hill.”

¹⁸And this is why the Lord will wait:

So as to be gracious to you.

And this is why he will arise to have compassion on you:

For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For the people will dwell in Zion in Jerusalem,

And you will certainly not weep.

He will be very gracious at the sound of your crying out;

When he hears it,

He will answer you.

²⁰And the Lord^* will give you bread of adversity,

And water of oppression,

But your teachers will no longer be kept at a distance,

And your eyes will see your teachers.

²¹And your ears will hear words behind you,

Saying, “This is the way;

Walk in it”,

Whenever you go off to the right

Or go off to the left.

²²And you will defile the silver overlay of your idols,

And the costume of your golden cast image.

You will dispose of them like the discharge of a menstruating woman.

“Away with you”,

You will say to it.

²³And he will give rain for your seed

Which you sow on the ground,

And as for food

– The produce of the land –

It will be rich and fat.

Your cattle will graze on that day

On broad pasture land.

²⁴And the oxen and the donkeys which till the ground

Will eat wholesome fodder

Which has been winnowed with a winnowing fan

Or a winnowing shovel.

²⁵And there will be on every high mountain,

And on every lofty hill,

Streams – brooks of water –

On the day of great slaughter,

When towers fall.

²⁶And the light of the moon

Will be like the light of the sun,

And the light of the sun will be seven times stronger,

Like seven days' light,

On the day when the Lord binds up

The fracture of his people,

And heals

The bruise of their blow.

²⁷Behold, the name of the Lord is coming from afar;

His anger is burning,

And the burden is heavy.

His lips are full of indignation,

And his tongue is like a consuming fire.

²⁸And his breath is like an overflowing stream,

Whose level comes up to the neck,

To sift the nations with a sieve to separate the worthless,

And a bridle in the jaws of the peoples,

Causing them to go astray.

²⁹You will have a song

As on the night of sanctifying a festival,

And joy in the heart,

As when a person goes with a pipe

To come to the mount of the Lord

– To the rock of Israel.

³⁰And the Lord will have his majestic voice heard,

And he will show how his arm comes down

In raging anger

And in the flame of a consuming fire

– In a violent flood and a downpour

And hailstones.

³¹For at the Lord's voice,

Assyria will slump;

He will strike them with a rod.

³²And every passage of the rod as decreed,

Which the Lord will lay on them,

Will be with drums and with harps,

And he will fight against them

In tumultuous wars.

³³For Topheth was set up in the former time;

It was even prepared for the king.

He has made it deep;

He has made it wide.

It is a pyre of fire and much wood;

The breath of the Lord,

Like a stream of sulphur,

Burns in it.